Fitzgibbons up for fight at finals

IT’S the getting up that’s defined Sally Fitzgibbons’ career.

For all the disappointments – three consecutive runner-up finishes in the world title race, and an Olympic defeat that is still as raw as a fresh wound – Fitzgibbons gets up and goes again next week in her bid to be the best women’s surfer in the world. At 30, she believes she has plenty of life left in her career and her best years may just be ahead of her.

After finishing third in the rankings at the end of the season, Fitzgibbons has won a place in the World Surf League (WSL) finals - a one-day event that will pit the top five men and women against each other in a series of heats until just one challenger is left to face the world no.1 in a three-heat series to decide the world championship.

“With the handicap, it may be written that it’s supposed to be someone else’s story but it’s the belief that it can be your day that counts,” Fitzgibbons said.

The competition window opens on Friday (Australian time), with forecasts for the Lower Trestles break in California showing strong swell building early next week.

“It really bookends a wild year but a year of firsts, one where we started with surfing Pipe for the first time in competition to the Olympic Games and now the WSL finals,” she said.

Fitzgibbons is still smarting from a quarter-final defeat at the Tokyo Olympics but like close friend Steph Gilmore, who was tipped out early in a shock loss, is using the experience as fuel for the WSL finals.