GILMORE GIVES UP LEADER’S JERSEY
STEPH STUNNED IN QUEST FOR SURF CROWN
STEPHANIE Gilmore has lost her grip on the World Surf League leader’s jersey after bombing out in Round 4 of the Fiji Women’s Pro in her worst result of the season.
The Tweed Coaster headed into the tournament tied for the championship lead with Tyler Wright but handed over the yellow jersey to the former Gold Coaster after her Round 4 loss to Tatiana Weston-Web bin difficult Cloud break conditions.
Weston-Webb handled the small conditions on the reef break best, notching scores of 7.33 and 8.27 to dominate the heat, with sixtime world champion Gilmore managing a two-wave total of just 8.87.
“That was a tough one,” Gilmore said.
“I just couldn’t really hit a section confidently. I was in two minds out there.”
The loss leaves Gilmore with ninth place in Fiji, her worst result of what has been her most consistent season since her last title in 2014.
With competitors able to discard their two worst results of the year, however, it is far from a disaster.
“It is tough to lose in Round 4 - it stings at this point in the race, but it is what it is,” Gilmore said.
“I’ve got a couple of months to work on things and get ready for (the next round at) Huntington.”
At the halfway point of a tight title race, Gilmore has been leapfrogged by Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons and now sits third on the ladder.
Fitzgibbons missed a golden opportunity to snare the yellow jersey when she allowed Weston-Webb to twice sneak under her priority to win their semi-final.
With Wright beaten by Courtney Conlogue in a comeback win in their semi, Fitzgibbons could have taken the tour lead had she made the final. But she made two priority errors, allowing Weston-Webb to sneak through and make the decider and will head to the next stop on tour trailing Wright by 1500 points on the competition ladder.
With conditions deteriorating, officials decided not to run the final yesterday, with a call to be made this morning on when to hold the clash between Conlogue and Weston-Webb.