Latest news with #GabrielaBryan
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Gabriela Bryan and Jordy Smith claim victory at the Margaret River Pro
A young star and tour veteran have won the Margaret River Pro, with Hawaii's Gabriela Bryan and South Africa's Jordy Smith celebrating after a challenging week of surfing. It is Bryan's second successive win at the Margaret River Pro, and her second win in the World Surf League's Championship Tour this year. Posting a 9.5 and securing the best combined total for the women's series so far, Bryan holds onto the yellow jersey and puts extra space between herself and 19-year-old Caitlin Simmers, who sits at a close number two on the women's world rankings. She told the World Surf League she was still getting used to her status as the competition's front-runner. "Every heat I have with it I'm getting more comfortable," Bryan said. "I have amazing people supporting me and I honestly couldn't do it without them." Simmers is still hoping for her second world title in a row after becoming the youngest to claim one last year. She knocked off the last-standing West Australian, wildcard Bronte Macaulay, in their semi-final heat earlier in the day. It was Macaulay's fourth time making the semi-finals at her home break but she has never made it to finals. But she came out all smiles, to cheers from local supporters. It was the veteran versus the comeback kids in the men's final, with South Africa's Smith eventually securing the win. American surfer Griffin Colapinto charged up the ranks to make both the cut and the Margaret River Pro finals, but Smith's performance was too strong. Smith, oldest in the league at 37, has already had one win this year and currently sits at number one, chasing his first world title. He made the most of the slight swell on offer, less than a week after Main Break offered up some of its biggest waves on record. The Margaret River event has served as a crucial mid-year cut point for the tour, after which lower-ranked competitors are relegated back to the qualifying circuit, a format which has divided surf fans. It was announced earlier this year that the feature would be dropped in 2026, and tour organisers would reintroduce a more traditional cumulative points winner to determine titles for the 2026 season. The Margaret River event will also be held earlier in the tour, with the season-ending event shifted to Pipeline in Hawaii. The tour now moves to California where 11-time world champion Kelly Slater will compete as a wildcard ahead of the world title showdown in Fiji in August.
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Hawaii's Bryan goes back-to-back in Western Australia waves
May 27 (Reuters) - Hawaii's Gabriela Bryan defended her Western Australia Margaret River Pro title on Tuesday, showcasing her powerful forehand surfing to beat reigning world champion Caitlin Simmers and maintain her rankings lead over her Californian rival. South African Jordy Smith won the men's event, stop seven on the world tour, by taking out California's Griffin Colapinto. The 37-year-old now leads the world championship rankings 18 years after making his tour debut. While conditions had slowed on Tuesday after big, perfect surf earlier in the competition period, Simmers and Bryan started their final swiftly. Simmers, 19, notched up a solid 7.17 out of 10 only to see Bryan use her trademark power on a series of searing turns for a near perfect 9.5. Both surfers followed up their initial keeper scores with some mid-range numbers before Bryan notched up another solid wave for a 7.83 and 17.33 total inside the first 10 minutes of the final. "I just went out there and was like, I've just got to surf my heart out, and that's what I did on that (9.5) wave. And then I was lucky enough to get a backup before it went flat, so yeah, I'm so stoked," Bryan, 23, said. Smith, who joined the world tour in 2008 and is the oldest competitor on tour, also got off to a strong start, picking up an excellent 8.5 on his first wave after Colapinto garnered a modest 4.83. With the ocean going quiet and needing a solid score, Colapinto waited in vain for another opportunity that never came, handing Smith his second win this year. "I think it's just a testament to every day, keep showing up, trusting what you're doing," Smith said. "This year has really been about having fun and enjoying this, because it's not forever." Colapinto finished third in the world in 2023 and 2024 but had a shocking start to this year, languishing near the bottom of the rankings before the start of the three-leg Australian tour. The 26-year-old from San Clemente had two of the most memorable waves of the event - a near-impossible tube in an early round and the only perfect 10-point ride in a blockbuster quarter-final against Italy's Leo Fioravanti. Trailing and needing a 9.4, Colapinto sped along an overhead wave and launched into a huge, full rotation aerial, greasing the landing as the shallow reef loomed. The tour next heads to Colapinto's home break, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics surfing venue of Lower Trestles. The top five men and women after the 11-stop tour will then compete for the world title in a one-day, winner-takes-all Finals Day in Fiji.
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
South African veteran Jordy Smith and new world No.1 Gabriela Bryan take Margaret River Pro titles as Aussie Isabella Nicholls wins new car
The final two events on the WTC Australian swing failed to deliver a local winner after South African veteran Jordy Smith and new world No.1 Gabriela Bryan took out the men's and women's events at Margaret River. But Bells Beach champ Isabella Nichols flew the Aussie flag after taking out the Aussie Treble, which was awarded to the best surfer over the three Australian events, including Bells and the Gold Coast Pro. Bryan proved a destroyer of local hopes on her way to her second title of the year, ending Sally Fitzgibbons' season on Monday before the 23-year-old Hawaiian defended the title she won last year by taking down reigning world champ Caitlin Simmers in a dominant final display. 'I'm honestly speechless, I don't know what to think,' Bryan said after her win. 'I've just been surfing how I want to surf and I just can't believe it.' Smith, in his 18th season on tour, then scorched enigmatic American star Griffin Colapinto to secure only his eighth tour win, but his second in 2025, after ending an eight-year drought in El Salvador. He'll take the No.1 ranking to the next event in California next month. There were no Aussies in either final in Western Australia, the first time in the three Australian events. Nichols and Jack Robinson won at Bells, while Fitzgibbons and comeback star Julian Wilson lost finals on the Gold Coast. The effort of Nichols to secure one title, while making quarter-finals on the Gold Coast and again at Margaret River, helped secure her fourth spot on the world rankings and the Aussie Treble, which came with a new car. Nichols, Molly Picklum and Tyler Wright were the only Australian women to make the mid-season cut and will contest the rest of the season in their bid for the world title. Ethan Ewing, Robinson and Joel Vaughan made the men's cut, with four more events before the finals in Fiji in August.
CNA
27-05-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Surfing-Hawaii's Bryan goes back-to-back in Western Australia waves
Hawaii's Gabriela Bryan defended her Western Australia Margaret River Pro title on Tuesday, showcasing her powerful forehand surfing to beat reigning world champion Caitlin Simmers and maintain her rankings lead over her Californian rival. South African Jordy Smith won the men's event, stop seven on the world tour, by taking out California's Griffin Colapinto. The 37-year-old now leads the world championship rankings 18 years after making his tour debut. While conditions had slowed on Tuesday after big, perfect surf earlier in the competition period, Simmers and Bryan started their final swiftly. Simmers, 19, notched up a solid 7.17 out of 10 only to see Bryan use her trademark power on a series of searing turns for a near perfect 9.5. Both surfers followed up their initial keeper scores with some mid-range numbers before Bryan notched up another solid wave for a 7.83 and 17.33 total inside the first 10 minutes of the final. "I just went out there and was like, I've just got to surf my heart out, and that's what I did on that (9.5) wave. And then I was lucky enough to get a backup before it went flat, so yeah, I'm so stoked," Bryan, 23, said. Smith, who joined the world tour in 2008 and is the oldest competitor on tour, also got off to a strong start, picking up an excellent 8.5 on his first wave after Colapinto garnered a modest 4.83. With the ocean going quiet and needing a solid score, Colapinto waited in vain for another opportunity that never came, handing Smith his second win this year. "I think it's just a testament to every day, keep showing up, trusting what you're doing," Smith said. "This year has really been about having fun and enjoying this, because it's not forever." Colapinto finished third in the world in 2023 and 2024 but had a shocking start to this year, languishing near the bottom of the rankings before the start of the three-leg Australian tour. The 26-year-old from San Clemente had two of the most memorable waves of the event - a near-impossible tube in an early round and the only perfect 10-point ride in a blockbuster quarter-final against Italy's Leo Fioravanti. Trailing and needing a 9.4, Colapinto sped along an overhead wave and launched into a huge, full rotation aerial, greasing the landing as the shallow reef loomed. The tour next heads to Colapinto's home break, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics surfing venue of Lower Trestles. The top five men and women after the 11-stop tour will then compete for the world title in a one-day, winner-takes-all Finals Day in Fiji.
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Sally Fitzgibbons defeated at Margaret River Pro by Gabriela Bryan
Sally Fitzgibbons has suffered heartbreak at the Margaret River Pro, losing her round-of-16 match-up in the final seconds, a result which has massive ramifications for the 34-year-old. Fitzgibbons needed to defeat world number one Gabriela Bryan to not only advance to the quarterfinals in WA, but also to avoid the top-10 mid-season cut for the third successive year. Fitzgibbons opened their heat by attacking a wave to earn a 6.83, and with Bryan uncharacteristically falling off a few waves, the 34-year-old NSW surfer looked in control. She bettered her back-up score with a nervous 4.33, leaving Bryan requiring a 7.33 score to reach the quarterfinals. But with 90 seconds remaining, the Hawaiian launched onto a wave and showed off her power moves in a two-turn combination, wowing the judges to score a 9.00 to take out the heat. Victory would also secure 14th-ranked Fitzgibbons a place on the 2026 Championship Tour after the WSL announced a larger women's field next year. Fitzgibbons could have qualified for next year's Championship Tour if fellow Aussie Tyler Wright could defeat Californian Lakey Peterson. But Wright also fell short in her round-of-16 battle, meaning Peterson qualified for the Champions Tour and sending Fitzgibbons back to the Challenger Series. An emotional Fitzgibbons stayed out in the water, devastated to have let the win — and the opportunities it secured — slip away. "I think for the first, like, 98 per cent of that heat it was all going against me, I could not get it together," Bryan said. "I'm like, I just need to do two big turns, and I hit the first one as hard as I could and then I was like, OK, just finish this thing, and it all worked out, so I was so stoked that wave came." Molly Picklum, Isabella Nichols and local wildcard Bronte Macaulay all won their match-ups on Monday. Picklum, who would have taken over the yellow rankings leader jersey if Bryan had bowed out, downed American teen Bella Kenworthy, while Macaulay secured a late wave to eliminate 2023 world champion and Olympic gold medallist Caroline Marks. The pair will meet in the quarter-finals, while the in-form Nichols, who beat France's Vahine Fierro, faces Peterson. The men's quarter-finals are next into the water, with local qualifier Jacob Willcox the sole Australian. AAP/ABC
