DAY five at the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games got underway in the best possible fashion for Team Australia, featuring Culburra Beach's Owen Wright and Gerroa's Sally Fitzgibbons, with a massive victory in the Aloha Cup final.
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Australia won their semi-final battle, taking down Team USA and Team France in the process.
In a complete team performance, the Aussies came in the gate with two minutes to spare after Sally Fitzgibbons anchored with an 11 point two-wave combo.
Ryan Callinan posted the highest single-wave score of 8.3 points and backed it up with a six-point ride before Nikki Van Dijk cemented the team's lead with a nine-point two-wave total.
Owen Wright came out of the gates firing off two solid scores of six and seven points to allow Fitzgibbons 14 minutes to seal the deal.
The final went down to the wire with the team battling the US and South Africa all the way.
Related content: Duo's Aussies in strong position at World Surfing Games
Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater and Sally Fitzgibbons went toe-to-toe as the last two surfers for their country.
Fitzgibbons had to settle for two quick scores at the death to get to the gate in time while Slater pulled up short on the sand by five seconds, giving Team Australia the win over South Africa in the process.
Final Aloha Cup standings: Team Australia (38.19 points), Team South Africa (38.11 points), Team USA (35.38 points) and Team Japan (28.1 points).
In other news, Owen Wright surfed to victory in his first heat of the event, taking down Ecuadorian Israel Barona and Russian Egor Volkov with a 12.93 point total in what was a slow heat.
Wright nailed the two best waves in the wind effected conditions to advance.
Round two of the men's draw Miyazaki, Japan is set to continue on Thursday.
