| Tyler Wright wins the Australian Under 16 Girls Junior Title |
| Tuesday, 09 December 2008 09:35 |
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Tyler Wright’s (NSW/Sth Coast/Culburra) amazing year continued today when she took out the Australian under 16 Girls Junior Title at Margaret River in Western Australia. Wright, 14 years of age, earlier this year shocked the surfing world by becoming the youngest surfer to ever win an ASP World Tour event and while she was always expected to win this event today, no one would have predicted it would be by the absolute narrowest of margins of three hundredths of a point (0.03) or such a hard fought final for her to win. Wright opened with a reasonably strong 5.75 ride early in the final to be in the lead but then made a very uncharacteristic error half way through when she was scored an interference over local West Australian surfer Mikalea Greene by taking off on the outside of Greene and affecting her scoring potential. The interference penalty meant that Wright had her second scoring ride halved and her competitors seized the opportunity to exploit her weakness. Mikalea Greene quickly found a strong 6 point ride to take the lead from Wright and with just minutes remaining in the final it looked like Wright was gone but she remained cool in the crisis, found a decent wave and was able to score the required 6.17 to snatch back the lead and take the victory. “ That was a hard final to win, harder than the ASP event in Sydney a few months ago!” exclaimed Wright after her win. “ I was a little too aggressive early in the final and that forced me to interfere but I always knew that I could still win despite the penalty. I was getting frustrated toward the end when I couldn’t find a decent wave but finally that right wave came to me and I managed to just get the score – it was a hard fought win.” Wright went on to say “ The year has been amazing and to finish with an Australian Junior Title is very special – I’ll head off to Hawaii in a couple of days and start focusing and training hard for the ASP World Junior Titles in Sydney early next January – that’s my next goal”. Final scores saw Wright on 9.03 to Mikalea Greene on 9.00 with Gold Coast’s Brodie Doyle in 3rd and Victoria’s Nikki Van Dijk in fourth place. A number of schools teams finals were also surfed today along with semi finals of the under 18 Boys and Girls divisions. Victoria took the early honours in the schools division with Harrison Mann (Geelong College) and Tom Cole (Wonthaggi College) winning the under 16 Boys teams final over NSW pair Cooper Chapman and Jack Scollard. The Victorian’s also nudged out NSW in the under 19 Boys teams final when Mitch Baker (Wonthaggi) and Todd Rosewell (Geelong College) defeated Kingscliff pair Kieren Lloyd and Jarrod White. NSW found form in the girls under 19 division with Philippa Anderson and Skye Burgess defeated Victorian pair Jessica Laing and Georgia Fish. Highlights in the individual semi finals came from Sth Coast NSW pair Dean Bowen and Jordi Watson who advanced into the final of the under 18 Boys with power packed blistering performances. Bowen in particular laid down notice that if he happens to get any decent waves he’s the surfer to beat here – He posted a perfect ten point ride in his semi final with a style that had many comparing him to a young Mark Occhilupo while Jordi Watson showed his go for it approach to easily take out semi two In the girls, WA’s Felicity Palmeteer came from last place to 1st in her semi in the last 8 seconds to win through while Newcastle’s Philippa Anderson posted a 9 point ride on the way to her semi win. Perfect winds made for great conditions today and with a small swell pulse forecast for tomorrow, the final day of this great event should be ideal. With so many multiple divisions across individuals and school teams surfing, the event mini site, which is located on the front page of www.surfingaustralia.com is the place to find results spreadsheets across all these divisions. Winners across the Boys and Girls 18 division and Boys 16 division will become automatic selections for the Australian Junior Team which will compete in Ecuador next March at the ISA World Junior Titles. Finals will run this coming weekend.
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