Sally Fitzgibbons and Tyler Wright reach the finals at Colgate Plax Girls Rio Pro
Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons and her fellow countryperson Tyler Wright successfully made it through into the finals of the Colgate Plax Girls Rio Pro, fifth of the seven stops on the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Championship
Tour, which continued at Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Fitzgibbons secured her place in the final showdown for the event title after getting the better of an in-form Carissa Moore from Hawaii during the first semi-final.
The second semi-final saw Wright leave South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag answerless through her superb performance, consequently advancing through into the final.
The crowd in attendance at the primary event site expected nothing short of a thrilling contest between the in-form surfers and understandably so as the peaky two-to-three foot waves on offer promised a lot.
Both Fitzgibbons and former ASP Women’s World Champion Moore had been in looking really solid since arriving in Brazil and the contest between them was expected to be full of fire-works.
That, however, did not turn out to be the case, as the Australian sensation managed to get herself a somewhat comfortable victory.
Fitzgibbons registered a win by earning a 7.07 off her first business-wave and backing it up with a 6.83-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 13.90 points.
Moore finished with a heat-total of 11.97 points, which comprised of a 6.50 and 5.47-point ride.
“It was good heat with Sally, but there were just not that many waves,” Moore said. “We paddled all over the beach and sometimes it turns in to strategy and paddle battling and unfortunately I was on the other end of it today. It’s alright though and I’ll
take this on to the next event.”
The second semi-final took place between Wright, last year’s ASP Women’s World Championship Tour runner-up, and Buitendag.
As the battle kicked off, the Australian surfer asserted her dominance over her South African rival almost immediately with a near-perfect 9.57-point ride.
Wright went on to add an additional 8.37 points to her account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 17.94 points.
Buitendag did not seem to have a solid answer to her rival’s outstanding performance and was eventually forced to concede victory after finishing with a heat-total of 13.64 points, which included a 7.04 and 6.57-point ride.
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