World surf champion Tyler Wright ‘good to go’ at Surfest after knee injury
WORLD champion Tyler Wright will contest her first major women’s event since securing the world crown last December when she lines up in this week in Newcastle.
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WORLD champion Tyler Wright is “good to go” after eight weeks out of the water and two intensive weeks of rehabilitation on a knee injury which almost ended her tilt for a second world crown.
Wright, fresh from winning the Australian boardriders event she contested with brother Mikey and Culburra club mates at Newcastle, will contest her first major women’s event since securing the world crown last December when she lines up in this week’s Surfest event at Newcastle.
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But missing from the event will be brother Owen who has been confined to the sand after sustaining a nasty cut requiring stitches in his cheek surfing a cyclonic swell in Queensland.
Wright, who ruptured a ligament in her knee last August, has likened the Newcastle tournament to a rugby league trial match with her surfing, more than the eventual result, what is most important to her.
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“It’s just like a trial game. It’s all about helping me get ready,” Wright said from Newcastle.
“I’ve just been training and surfing. I had two weeks in the US for rehabilitation and it’s all good.
“I still have to rehab it but it’s all good. It’s going amazing.”
Wright said her long break from surfing was to give her knee a much-needed break after she opted to strap on a brace and surf with the injury to keep alive her 2017 title tilt.
It was a decision which saw Wright become the first woman since compatriot Stephanie Gilmore in 2010 to defend the women’s world surfing crown.
“It needed time to rest so when I got back into rehab and physical training in January we had a great read on it and there is great progress,” Wright said.
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“Technically it is fully recovered now. It’s just bits and pieces we are working on.”
Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons and American Tatiana Weston-Webb are three of the big names competing in Newcastle this week.
Former world No.1 Matt Wilkinson heads the men’s event which also boasts the likes of 2017 Rookie of the Year Connor O’Leary, Italian Leonardo Fioravanti and Kanoa Igarashi, who recently switched allegiance from the US to Japan in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics.