Stephanie Gilmore reclaims her throne after securing fifth ASP Women’s World Title at Biarritz
Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore claimed her fifth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Title on the final day of Roxy Pro Biarritz at La Grande Plage in Biarritz, France, on Saturday, July 14.
The 24-year-old New South Wales-based surfer has established herself as one of the most dominating female surfer in history after surpassing the record of America’s Freida Zamba, Liza Anderson and Australia’s Wendy Botha.
The only other female surfer to have held five titles was her fellow countryperson Layne Beachley. While the former record-holder has retired from professional surfing, Gilmore looks solid enough to add one or more titles to her collection before calling
it a day, thus raising the bar even further for the future generations.
Gilmore begin to dominate the female surfing scene in her very first year on the ASP Women’s World Tour, walking away with the title in 2007. She continued to assert her dominance in the following years, successfully defending her throne in the next three
years, before eventually losing it to Hawaii’s young sensation Carissa Moore. The previous year had not been the best of the Australian surfer’s career, primarily because of recovering from a trauma that she had endured after getting attacked by a man with
a knife.
Prior to the 2012 elite tour, Gilmore had confidently stated that she planned on taking back her throne. She wasted very little time to start making this claim a reality by clinching top honours at Roxy Pro Gold Coast that went down in Australia in February,
thus instantly becoming the front-runner for the World title.
The next stop on the ASP Women’s World Tour, Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, also saw her putting yet another outstanding performance in her home conditions. She managed to reach the Finals, but eventually had to settle for a runner-up finish.
The next event on the tour, TSB Bank New Zealand Surf Festival, found the Australian surfer steal the show once again with her dominating performances and eventually walked away with the overall win.
Gilmore did not have the best of runs at the next two events, Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic in Australia and Billabong Rio Pro in Brazil, where she was forced to exit the contention for the event title after reaching the quarter-finals. However, that
did not affect her position on top of the ASP Women’s World Ranking table.
Arriving at Biarritz for the latest edition of Roxy Pro, she just needed four heat-wins to seal the deal. This did not take her long as she claimed victory in her Round 1 heat, Round 3 heat and Quarter-final before finally beating Moore in the Semi-final
heat to become the ASP Women’s World Champion for the fifth time in just six years with one more event still left in this year’s elite tour.
“This year for me was all about improving my consistency and having fun with my surfing,” Gilmore said. “From when I started five years ago to where we are now, women’s surfing has improved so much. It’s an honor to be back up top as these girls push me
everyday and are all incredible surfers.”
Gilmore went on to win Roxy Pro Biarritz 2012 by defeating her compatriot Tyler Wright in the Finals, thus making her trip to France even sweeter.
With the level of female surfing increasing rapidly, it would be interesting to see if Gilmore is able to retain her throne in the years to come. Judging by her performance this year and her progression over the years, one is forced to believe that her domination
of the sport is far from over.
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