Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) and Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) won the Corona Bali Protected, the third stop on the 2019 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT). Hosted at Keramas, one of the world’s most high-performance waves, the Final Series concluded in the best conditions of the event’s holding period with clean six-to-eight foot (1.8 – 2.4 metre) waves on offer. Gilmore charged through the pumping surf to take her 30th CT victory, while Japan’s Igarashi captured his first.
Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) won his first CT event title today after taking down a stacked field of veterans, including 11-time WSL Champion Kelly Slater (USA) in the Semifinals, Adrian Buchan (AUS) in the Quarterfinals, and Jeremy Flores (FRA) in the Final. With all of his opponents today holding a minimum of ten years over him, 21-year-old Igarashi was fired up to earn a big result on Finals Day.
“It all makes sense,” Igarashi said. “All of the hard work you do makes sense after this. My first round was so terrible. I didn’t catch any waves and I was just thinking what is the point of all of the hard work you do, all of the one percenters, all of the time in the gym, all of the time alone and surfing alone and now it all makes sense. This means so much to me. I can’t even find words to describe it.”
Igarashi is the first full-time competitor to formally represent Japan on the Championship Tour. Igarashi’s victory today not only marks his first CT win but also the first win for a surfer representing Japan on the CT. Igarashi moves up to 2nd on the Jeep Leaderboard and is one step closer to achieving his dream of representing Japan at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, where surfing will make its Olympic debut.
“Every heat meant a lot to me and I wanted to give my all no matter who I was up against,” continued Igarashi. “No matter what the conditions were like, I just wanted to adapt to the conditions and throw everything at it. From the first round to the Final, I surfed the same but then I feel like in the Final I peaked and I did everything right. Sharing the Final with Jeremy (Flores) was an honor and that Semifinal with Kelly (Slater) was so good. Every heat gave me so much purpose to do my best and to now have my first CT win this early in my career…it means so much.”
Gilmore, seven-time WSL Champion, came into the Corona Bali Protected
sitting in 5th place on the Jeep Leaderboard, searching for a result above Equal 5th in 2019. Gilmore powered through the draw and defeated Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) in the Final, Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) in the Semifinals,
and Courtney Conlogue (USA) in the Quarterfinals.
Gilmore’s Final with event standout Fitzgibbons was an epic battle in
perfect barrels at Keramas. Fitzgibbons hunted the tubes but struggled
to find an exit, leaving Gilmore to control the heat with two mid-range
scores until the final minutes when Gilmore utilized priority to take off
on a set, hit the first section, pull into the longest tube of the heat and
come out to attack the closeout. Her wave was the first and only Perfect
10 point ride of the event and only the second of the 2019 season.
“I can’t believe this, I just can’t,” Gilmore said. “I knew Sally (Fitzgibbons) was going to be out there looking for barrels, but I just had to stick to my game plan and find the right waves and make the best out of them. At
the end, I was thinking ‘Just get the excellent range’ because I haven’t
really done that all event and I just kept thinking about then pulled the
trigger on that one and just closed my eyes and held my line and then I
came up. It was so cool.”
Gilmore’s impressive win in Bali was the 30th CT victory of her career and rockets her to World No. 1 on the Jeep Leaderboard, overtaking 17-year-old Caroline Marks (USA). The Australian now wears the Jeep Leader Jersey heading into the Margaret River Pro next week.
“I didn’t know that it was possible for me to go to the top of the rankings, so I’m so stoked with that,” Gilmore continued. “I was wearing yellow this week and painted my nails yellow so I made my intentions pretty clear. I don’t know what Margaret River is going to deliver, but I’ll be going there to do my best and just hope I can hold on to the yellow Jeep Leader Jersey all year. This is just amazing.”