The first edition of a CT event on Rottnest Island left great excitement ahead of the world surfing championship in El Salvador.

As has been the norm on the Australian leg of the CT stops, this fifth and final event on the island brought debutants, the return of a former world tour competitor, and the triumph of at least one Brazilian in the event finals.

Without a doubt, the big winner of this visit to Australia was Gabriel Medina, who triumphed in two of the four stops and remains solid at the top of the CT standings.

The Rottnest Search featured the presence of former competitor Taj Burrow, who, despite not being at his best competitive level, added memories and great emotions to the event.

The island also saw the great performance of the debutants, for example Morgan Cibilic, who competed in the final against Medina, in addition Liam O'Brien managed to reach the semifinals and both showed a great level and surprised by defeating several favorite surfers to reach the final rounds of the date.

In the women's competition, Sally Fitzgibbons emerged as the clear winner. With consistently strong surfing from the first round, she established herself as a title contender, averaging 14.88 points per heat across the five rounds she competed in. The Australian surfer defeated France's Johanne Defay in the final. Despite Defay's excellent performance in the earlier rounds, she was unable to overcome the local surfer from Gerroa, Australia.

There were also debutantes in the ladies' category, and Mia McCarthy added her first impressions on the world tour.

For our country, Brisa Hennessy's performance was not what we would have liked, finishing in seventeenth position, which is the worst result of the current season for the Costa Rican, dropping two places in the overall ranking.

 

The ranking remains with Carissa Moore in first position, however, second place is now occupied by Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, who displaced Tatiana Weston-Webb after falling early in the elimination round (second round).

Now the best surfers in the world will represent their respective countries in the world surfing championship in El Salvador, in search of the last Olympic spots; this competition will begin next weekend.

Written by: Enrique Hernández

General Management: Marco Montero