Carissa Moore, Sally Fitzgibbons dominate ASP Women’s World Tour Billabong Rio Pro – Surfing news
The first round of the latest edition of the 2011 Billabong Rio Pro continued to deliver an exciting surfing action as Jessi Miley-Dyer and Sally Fitzgibbons dominated the events on Thursday, May 12.
The third heat featured Hawaii’s Carissa Moore taking on Australia’s Jessi Miley-Dyer and Brazil’s Maya Gabriera. Fresh off her victory in the Commonwealth Beachley Classic in New South Wales a week earlier, the 18-year-old was soaring with confidence as
she made her way to the latest stop of the Association of Surfing Professionals Women’s World Tour. With two victories in the bag, she is currently sitting at the top in the season standings and is indeed one of the strongest contenders for the Championship.
On a prowl for clinching her third victory of the season and retaining her position at the top of the season ranking, Moore entered her first heat of the event full of determination. Even the deteriorating conditions were not enough to stop the surfer from
mercilessly dominating her rivals. Scoring 8.30 against Dyer’s 5.00 and Gabriera’s 3.56, she advanced to the third round of the competition.
“This is an important event to get some points,” Moore said. “It’s our fourth event in a row and it’s been a long time away from home. It’s definitely a key event for everyone’s rating going into the end of the year.”
The fourth heat of the opening day of the Billabong Rio Pro pitted the in-form surfer from Australia, Sally Fitzgibbons against her compatriot Laura Enever and Brazil’s Andrea Lopez. With two victories to her name so far, Fitzgibbons is second in the current
season ratings, just behind Moore. Clearly one of the most formidable forces to be reckoned with at the current event, Fitzgibbons did not intend to go easy on her rivals in her heat as she pursued victory to get back the lead that she had lost to Moore in
the previous event.
Finishing with a two-wave score of 13.84, she put Enever’s 11.07 and Lopez’s 9.23 to shame as she cemented her place in the third round. Her excellent performance even under the challenging conditions made it apparent that she intended to redeem herself
after being eliminated from the previous stop of the World Tour prematurely. With only two more stops to go after this one, it was quite understandable to find her so determined.
“This is an important event, we’re over halfway through the season and I’m just looking to remain consistent,” Fitzgibbons said. “I’ll just put in my best efforts here and hopefully make my way to the final and have fun along the way.”
The first round still has two more heats to go before the event could move on to the second round.
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