Courtney Conlogue and Sarah Mason survive round two of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
America’s Courtney Conlogue emerged triumphant in the ninth heat of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro’s second round that was held on Friday, June 10th, at Praia do Guincho beach in Estoril Portugal.
She clinched the win by prevailing over New Zealand’s Sarah Mason, Australia’s Laurina McGrath and South Africa’s Rosanne Hodge in a four-way battle. The victory confirmed her place in the next round of the competition.
Mason secured the second position and hence successfully extended her life in the competition by earning a place in the third round of the competition, i.e. the round of 24. McGrath finished in third place while Hodge rounded out the bottom position. Consequently,
both the ladies were eliminated from the race for the event title contention.
Two-to-three foot waves, accompanied by offshore winds, prevailed at the primary event site on Friday. There was hardly any juice in the waves, which meant that the surfers could not go for the technical tricks and had to rely on somewhat conventional tricks
instead.
As the battle kicked off, the 18-year-old Conlogue immediately asserted her dominance in the heat by locking a wave and executing a set of spectacular manoeuvres to earn 8.50 points. This allowed her to enjoy an early lead and relax a little. However, she
further added an 8.00 to her score half-way through the heat to move to a two-wave total of 16.50 points, the highest heat-total of the second round so far. The amazing score kept her in the lead till the end and eventually sealed the fate of the contest with
her walking away with a win, as well as a confirmed spot in the next stage of the event.
16-year-old Mason did not have a bad heat either. She got off to a good start, surfing a wave impressively to earn 7.00 points off it. She soon added another 6.40 points to her account after locking yet another decent wave to, eventually finishing with a
two-wave total of 13.40 points. Though she missed out on victory by 3.10 points and ended up in second position, her life in the competition was extended with her place in the round of 24 getting confirmed.
McGrath failed to make a solid impact in the heat and only managed to secure 4.35 points off her first wave and 3.90 points off her second to finish with a heat-total of 8.25 points. The unimpressive score earned her the third position, adding her to the
elimination list. Joining her in the list was the South African, Hodge, who had not been able to come up with a good performance either and only earned a score of 7.75 off her two waves to finish at the bottom.
Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is the fifth of seven stop on the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s Star Tour and second of four stops on ASP Women’s European series.
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