CULBURRA Beach's Tyler Wright has continued her strong 2021 World Surf League season during the opening rounds of the Rip Curl Narrabeen Classic.
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The two-time world champion stumbled out of the blocks at the third stop on the WSL 2021 Championship Tour (CT), by finishing third in heat two of the seeding round.
Wright's two-wave combined score of 8.20 saw her finish behind United States' Caroline Marks (9.14) and Avoca's Macy Callaghan (8.43) - sending her to a round two elimination surf-off with Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb and North Narrabeen's Laura Enever.
Thankfully the former St Johns student regained her form, topping the round two heat with a score of 9.10, to edge Weston-Webb (8.96) and Enever (8.94).
Wright will take on France's Johanne Defay in heat six of the round of 16 when surfing resumes.
Fellow South Coast talent Sally Fitzgibbons (Gerroa) has also progressed to the third round, where she will go head-to-head with Callaghan.
To get to this point, the Kiama High School alumna dominated her opening round heat with a score of 10.67, to easily account for both US' Sage Erickson (7.40) and Defay (6.60).
Unfortunately, the South Coast's two male hopes - Culburra Beach brothers Owen and Mikey Wright - have both been eliminated from contention.
Owen starred in his opening round heat, chalking up a 10.17 to down Hawaii's Seth Moniz (9.00) and South Africa's Matthew McGillivray (7.87).
This put him into a round three showdown with North Stradbroke Island's Ethan Ewing but the Culburra Beach Boardriders' 11.83 wasn't enough to win the duel, as his rival scored 13.10.
Owen's younger brother Mikey suffered the same fate.
After losing his opening heat to Brazilian's Filipe Toledo (13.34) and Adriano de Souza (7.47) by only managing a 5.80, Wright held his nerve in the elimination round by finishing second with a 9.94 - to finish behind Brazils' Caio Ibelli (9.97) and in front of McGillivray (7.70).
But in round three, Mikey was once again pitted against Toledo, who defeated him 9.63 to 4.33.
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