Lakey Peterson comes down hard on Sally Fitzgibbons during the Dow AgroSciences Pro Quarter-finals
America’s Lakey Peterson triumphed over Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons in the third Quarter-final of the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro, third of the seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s
World Title Series, which continued at Fitzroy Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand, on Saturday, April 14.
The Quarter-final Success over her in-form Australian rival served to carry Paterson into the Semi-finals, consequently removing Fitzgibbons from the contention for the event title.
Fitzgibbons, the 2011 ASP Women’s World Runner-Up, was being considered as the strongest contender for the event title. She had prevailed at the very same event last year and her determination to defend her title had pushed her to put on a series of spectacular
performances over the last few days.
A victory at Bells Beach over a week ago had also served to boost Fitzgibbon’s confidence as she took on the world’s best surfers from around the globe in the waves of New Zealand.
Pitted against the in-form Australian surfer in the third Quarter-final was Peterson. The latter had already gotten a better of Fitzgibbons in Round 3 to force her rival into taking a longer road into the Quarter-finals. This was bound to give her a psychological
advantage and thus slight edge during another encounter with Fitzgibbons in a battle for the Semi-final spot.
As the showdown between the two surfers got underway, Fitzgibbons got off to a promising start, scoring a 6.17 off her first business-wave wave to take an early lead. Peterson, however, did not take too long to make her intention evident and locked her first
business-wave to give it her all. The immense amount of effort put into the ride allowed her to post an impressive 8.77 on the score-board and thus moved her into the lead.
The American surfer continued the charge by unloading a string of stylish tricks on her second business-wave to move to a heat-total of 16.50 points.
Fitzgibbons needed to earn a big score off her business-wave if she was to challenge her competitor’s score. Getting hold of a juicy wave a little past the halfway stage of the heat, she executed an impressive combo. Despite giving it her all, the Australian
was only able to add a 7.83 to her account. The resultant heat-total of 14.00 points left her in a 2.50-point deficit, which consequently led to her elimination while securing Peterson’s place in the next stage of the competition.
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