Sally Fitzgibbons emerge triumphant in TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro
Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons got an ideal start at the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro, third of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour, taking a convincing victory in her Round
1 heat that went down at Fitzroy Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand, on Wednesday, April 11.
Fitzgibbons took the win over America’s Lakey Peterson and France’s Justine Dupont in the fourth heat of Round 1 to advance directly into the third round while forcing both her competitors to take a trip to the relegation 2 to surf again for a place in Round
3.
With the best female surfers from around the globe in attendance at the primary event site on Wednesday, the crowd expected the day to be full of enthralling surfing battles throughout the day.
Fitzgibbons, the 21-year-old 2011 ASP Women’s World Runner-Up, was considered as one of the strongest contenders for the event as well as the season title. Coming straight off an outstanding win at Bells Beach, she continued her excellent run of form to
take down Peterson and Dupont in the fourth heat.
The Australian surfer got off to a modest start in the battle before locking her first business-wave to unload a series of exquisite tricks to post an 8.00 on the score-board. She kept the momentum going to find a 6.60-point ride, taking her heat-total to
14.60 points.
“It was a dream to win back-to-back at Bells last week,” Fitzgibbons said. “Then coming here to New Zealand it’s all about adapting to the beach-breaks. I love surfing here, it’s similar to home. I think all the community support at this event is unreal.
It looks like the swell is going to hang around for the week which is exciting.”
Peterson was forced to settle for second place after finishing with a heat-total of 12.95 points, which comprised of a 7.50 and 5.45-point wave.
Dupont failed to make much of an impact during the course of the heat after scoring a 5.00 and 4.80 off her best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 9.80 points.
The bottom-two finish led to the relegation of both Peterson and Dupont into the next round to surf again for survival.
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