2011 ASP Women’s World Tour: second round of Billabong Rio Pro concludes – Surfing Update
The biggest names in women surfing were present in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, to compete in the fifth of the seventh stop of 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), Billabong Rio Pro on Thursday, May 12.
The event featured 18 surfers in six heats during the first round. After treating the surfing fans and the crowd present at the event site, Barra Da Tijuca, to exciting surfing action, the first round wrapped up. The top six surfers went into the third round
directly, while the second and third place finishers made their way to the second round.
The second round of the event gave the surfers who looked out of sorts during their previous heat to redeem themselves and advance to the third round.
The first heat in the second round saw ASP Women’s World Tour rookie from Australia, Laura Enever going against her compatriot Claire Bevilacqua. After failing to impress in the previous round, the 19-year-old rookie definitely upped her game in the second
round to defeat her 28-year-old rival, scoring 14.40 off her two waves to Bevilacqua’s 12.60.
“I’ve been pretty nervous lately, I’ve had three 13ths before coming here and I started with a 3rd at Snapper so my heart was definitely pounding at the end,” Enever said. “Claire (Bevilacqua) had that 7.6 and could have easily gotten a 6 so I just tried
to breathe. I’m glad I got that 8 at the start.”
France’s Pauline Ado went against Australia’s Felicity Palmateer in the next heat to advance to the next stage of the event. Both surfers struggled to find good waves. However, the French managed to end up in the lead with a final score of 11.03 to prevail
over her Australian rival who had just managed an 8.00.
The third heat pitted Hawaii’s Coco Ho against Brazil’s Maya Gabeira. After a rather unimpressive start to the day, getting sent to the second round by Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich, the 20-year-old Hawaiian managed to find her rhythm and redeem herself. She dominated
the 24-year-old Brazilian, scoring 14.94 against Gabeira’s 4.17 to progress further in the competition.
“I had kind of a tough start this morning and was out of rhythm so I was going in to my Round 2 heat kind of down,” Ho said. “I got a slow start in Round 2 as well and was worried that my bad rhythm was continuing, but I eventually found my feet and finished
my waves.”
America’s Courtney Conlogue battled against Brazil’s Andrea Lopes in the fourth heat. Putting up a weak fight, the Brazilian surrendered victory to the American by scoring only 8.17 against her rival’s 13.44.
The second last heat of the second round featured a show-down between New Zealand’s Paige Hareb and Brazil’s Suelen Naraisa. The conditions got worse than before during the heat, but Paige still managed to clinch the win by earning herself 10.33 while her
Brazilian competitor ended up with a 5.96.
The last heat of the day saw Hawaii’s Alana Blanchard take on Australia’s Jessi Miley-Dyer. The Hawaiian prevailed over her Australian rival, scoring 13.10 against Miley-Dyer’s 8.70.
After the second round concluded, the event organisers found the conditions deteriorated for the third round and ended up calling it a day. The third round of the Billabong Rio Pro will take place on Friday if the conditions improve by then.
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