Gnarly
Photo © AAP One/ASP, Damien Poullenot
Stephanie Gilmore claimed her fifth women's world surfing title on Saturday with victory over fellow Australian Tyler Wright in the penultimate event of the year in Biarritz, France.
Gilmore was the first surfer ever to win four titles from four attempts from 2007-2010, but fell back to the No.3 ranking last year when her life was disrupted by a violent assault.
"This year for me was all about improving my consistency and having fun with my surfing," Gilmore said after beating teenager Wright 18.53 points to 13.10 in the final of the Roxy Pro.
"From when I started five years ago to where we are now, women's surfing has improved so much.
"It's an honour to be back up top as these girls push me every day and are all incredible surfers."
The only woman with more world titles is the now retired Layne Beachley with seven, while men's super star Kelly Slater has 11 and counting.
Wright, in her second year on the world tour, was happy with her performance, and rise from fifth to third in the rankings.
"I feel pretty good," Wright said.
"I was so excited for Steph (Gilmore). She was ahead of me the whole time and with five minutes to go I was like, 'you've done it!'
"She ripped the whole contest and didn't lose one heat."
The only person who could have stopped the title celebrations was another Australian, world No.2 Sally Fitzgibbons, who needed to finish second to force a showdown in the last event in California.
But Fitzgibbons was well beaten in the quarter-finals by Hawaiian Coco Ho who then lost to Wright in the semis.
Heading into the US Open of Surfing at the end of the month Gilmore has 48,400 points to sit clear of the scramble for runner-up between Fitzgibbons (42,100), Moore (36,700) and Wright (36,700).
The Project chats to Stephanie Gilmore tonight!
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