Carissa Moore and Sally Fitzgibbons in contention for the 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour title
The 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour has displayed some of the most intense surfing action over the last few months. With top female surfers chasing the ASP World title, there had hardly been a dull moment during the five
events that have already taken place out of the scheduled seven events for the season.
Each contest turned out to be an adrenaline-pumping experience for both, the surfers as well as the fans. The ladies were striving hard to not only prevail over each other, but also to compete the challenging conditions that mother-nature kept on throwing
at them.
Despite all the challenging conditions and the intimidating competition fields, two women have managed to show consistent performance to climb to the top of the season standings. After the fifth stop of the season, Women’s Billabong Rio Pro, wrapped up a
few days ago in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, only these two surfers remain in the contention for this years’ ASP Women’s World Tour title. These two red-hot surfers are Carissa Moore from Hawaii and Sally Fitzgibbons from Australia.
The Hawaiian and Australian surfer have looked in top form since the start of the season. The way the two have performed over the last few months, one cannot help sympathising with their competitors. Dominating and ruthless, they have trampled over one opponent
after another to kick the rest of the field out of the title race.
Though Moore and Fitzgibbons are the top performers of the season, it has not entirely been a smooth sailing for them. On most occasions, it was either of them who kept the other from walking away victorious. The two have continuously met in the crucial
stages of the event to decide each other’s fate.
The 18-year-old Moore found herself pitted against the 20-year-old Fitzgibbons in the very first stop of the 2011 ASP season at Snapper Rocks in Queensland, Australia. After an intense showdown, Moore managed to eliminate her rival from the event and proceeded
to the final, where she prevailed over Australia’s ASP rookie Tyler Wright to walk away with victory.
Moore and Fitzgibbons met once again in the decider of the next event, Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach, in April. Both the finalists showed exceptional form throughout the week to reach the final and it was difficult to pick a favourite. The final battle
turned out to be a real nail-biter, but the Australian was successful in beating her Hawaiian rival this time to firmly allow herself as a threat to this year’s ASP Women’s title.
The final of the third stop of the 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour, TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival, pitted the two ladies against each other once again in May. With a score to settle, the two ladies kicked off the final with determination. However, Moore failed
to make a strong impact in the final after failing to lock a good wave. This allowed Fitzgibbons to walk away with her second consecutive victory of the season.
Less than a week after her success in New Zealand, Fitzgibbons, who was expected to add yet another victory to her name in New South Wales, Australia, found herself getting eliminated by her Peruvian rival, Sofia Mulanovich, in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth
Bank Beachley Classic. Though Mulanovich put up a commendable fight in the final, she still was not able to keep Moore from clinching her second elite win of the season and move ahead of Fitzgibbons in the season standings.
The recent stop of the ASP Women’s World Tour took the surfers to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for the Billabong Rio Pro. The conditions in Rio turned out to be the worst that the ladies had faced so far in the current season, with hardly 2-4 foot waves on offer
at Barra Da Tijuca, the primary site of the event.
After a few lay days, the event finally got underway. After a series of intense yet low scoring battles, Moore and Fitzgibbons reached the finals, which hardly came as a surprise considering the sort of form they both were in. Looking to redeem herself,
the Australian strived hard to beat her Hawaiian rival, but the effort proved to be futile and she ended up surrendering yet another victory to Moore.
After the five events, Moore has a convincing lead over the rest with 47,000 points, though she can hardly relax as Fitzgibbons is breathing right down her neck with 41,650 points.
With only two more stops to go, it would be interesting to see how the season unfolds and whether Fitzgibbons would be able to make a comeback to take the lead back from Moore after faltering in the two previous events.
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