RECOVERING WRIGHT STUNS AT MAUI PRO
TWO-TIME TWO TIME world ld champion h Tyler Wright has made a stunning comeback to competitive surfing at the Maui Pro, eliminating title contender Lakey Peterson to reach the quarter-finals.
Australian Wright, who is back in action after a 17-month absence through illness, won 12.67 to 11.60 at the season-ending event to end American Peterson’s world championship hopes.
Wright was the second Australian into the final eight at Honolua Bay after Sally Fitzgibbons became the first to advance from the round of 16 when she defeated New Zealand’s Paige Hareb in a dominant performance.
The last time Wright competed in Hawaii’s Maui Pro was in 2017, when she claimed her second world title, but it has been a tough slog since then. She was initially diagnosed with influenza A when she fell ill and was hospitalised in South Africa before last year’s J-Bay Open in July.
However, complications continued to plague her and frustrate her efforts to get back on tour.
“It messed up my brain and my body,” Wright league.com.
But yesterday the 25-year-old took another huge step in her long recovery process which she hopes will allow her to contest the world championship tour again next year.
Finishing last in her seeding heat, Wright won her three-woman elimination showdown before her upset win over world No.2 Peterson.
“It’s incredible … the amount of self talk during the heat (against Peterson) was almost the most taxing part of the whole day,” Wright said in her post-heat interview.
“Recovery-wise, today has gone as well as it could after three heats.
“I got a couple of floggings and my brain fully woke up and I was like ‘This is what being in a heat and adrenaline is like — oh, this is fun’.
“It’s good to be feeling those things again and taking it all in.”
Wright, who will face France’s Johanne Defay for a spot in the semi-finals, was thrilled to be back among the world’s elite. I’m really happy to be here and enjoying it … it’s kind of back to enjoying life and having fun,” she said. told worldsurf