Going into the final event of the year on the ASP Women's World Championship Tour Carissa Moore and Tyler Wright were really neck and neck. Moore had more wins than Wright, three to two, but Wright had three 2nd place results as opposed to Moore's three 3rd place results. Before we delve too deep into this let us simplify by saying there are 8 events in the year and the point gained from one's top 7 events count towards the final. The final event of the year was situated in Portugal. Oddly enough, on the very same day in France the men were duelling it out and Mick Fanning put a massive result towards his world title campaign, but the real action was in Portugal.
Moore and Wright both started with good heat wins over their competitors in Round 1 to advance to the the non-elimination Round 3. With pressure on both of them, knowing that if one fell out earlier than the other they could lose their world title hopes, they both stumbled in round 3. Moore got defeated by Bianca Buitendag (from South Africa) and Coco Ho beat Wright to put them both in all-important Rd 4 heats. Moore was up against 5 times world champ Stephanie GIlmore in heat 2 but managed to hold her nerve and narrowly defeat Gilmore by 0,5 points, advancing her to the quarter finals. Now it was all eyes on Wright in quarter-final 4, if she did not make the heat against Lakey Peterson, Moore would be crowned world champ. Wright was not going to give up that easily however, and convincingly defeater Peterson to advance into the quarter finals. That was it for the day and the girls had to try and get some sleep before the title would be revealed the following day.
It was the day of the finals, the conditions had deteriorated slightly, but that was not stopping anyone and the contest was still on. Once again Moore was up first, where she this time successfully defeated Buitendag to advance into the semi-finals and kept her title hopes alive. Moore had successfully won her first world title at the tender age of 18 in 2011, and after a tough year in 2012 she was determined to retrieve that crown. Wright has not yet got a title but at the young age of 19 and having already got 2 4th place results, in 2012 and 2011 she has had an incredible year and that world title has been her dream for years. In quarter-final 4 Wright was up against the ever competitive Sally Fitzgibbons, also from Australia. Sally ended up posting the highest heat score of the quarter-final and take down Wright to give the title to Moore. Moore was ecstatic of course, and used that positive energy to go on and defeat Fitzgibbons in the final.
This has got to go down in the history books as one of the most exciting title races of all time. WIth the current crop of talent on the world tour I am sure the 2014 will be equally if not more exciting!
CONGRATULATIONS CARISSA MOORE!!
To find out more about the champ watch this!
(HEADSPACE): Carissa Moore from The Inertia on Vimeo.