Courtney Conlogue defeats Justine Dupont to move into Round 3 of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro
America’s Courtney Conlogue successfully made her way through into the third round of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro, the fifth of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Title Series, after putting on a superb performance
to claim victory in the fifth heat of Round 2 that went down at the beach-break of Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, May 10.
Conlogue took the win over France’s Justine Dupont to secure her place in the third round while bringing the latest elite tour event to a premature end for her rival.
“I was just trying to pick the best waves out there with how inconsistent it is and have priority when the right waves came,” Conlogue said during her post-heat interview. “It was super tricky with the dropping swell and the tide change. I’m stoked I got
through that Round 2 heat and I’m looking forward to the next round.”
The event organisers had decided to move the opening round of the competition from the main event venue of Barra da Tijuca to the alternative event site of Arpoador to capitalise on the promising waves that were on offer at the latter. The competition continued
at Arpoador on day 2 of the competition, but it did not turn out to be that rewarding as the challenging one-to-three foot waves kept the surfers from really opening up.
Conlogue, current No.4 on the ASP Women’s World Title series, was expected to come down hard on her rivals on day 1 of the competition, but she struggled to find her rhythm and thus got relegated to the second round.
Facing ASP Women’s World Tour rookie Dupont in the fifth heat of Round 2, Conlogue had a good opportunity to bounce back. She capitalised on the opportunity quite nicely, scoring a 6.67 off her first business-wave and backing it up with an impressive 7.50-point
ride in the final minutes of the heat to finish with a heat-total of 14.17 points.
Dupont collected a couple of scores in the five-point range to end up with a two-wave total of 10.47 points, thus surrendering victory to her rival and consequently sending her through into the next round of the competition.
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