Courtney Conlogue defeats Sofia Mulanovich to step into Roxy Pro Gold Coast Quarter-finals
America’s Courtney Conlogue got the better of Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich in the fourth heat of Roxy Pro Gold Coast’s Round 4 that went down at Snapper Rocks in Queensland, Australia, on Tuesday, February 28.
The successful result in the fourth round took Conlogue into the Quarter-finals while bringing an impressive run by Mulanovich to an end.
The first of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour had delivered a heavy dose of thrilling action as the top female surfers from around the world had arrived at Gold Coast to pursue an excellent start to their
latest campaign for the coveted World Title.
While the first three days of the competition had been blessed by good surfing conditions, the fourth day turned out to be slightly challenging as two-to-three foot waves accompanied by slight on-shore winds contribute to the pressure that the surfers had
to face during their heats. The frequency of high-performance waves at the primary event site was low, causing the surfers to remain on their toes throughout the course of the battle to grab the opportunity to score big.
There was just one final spot remaining in the Quarter-finals and it was Conlogue and Mulanovich who were all set to battle it out among themselves to decide who got to secure that spot.
Hawaii’s Malia Manuel had defeated Conlogue in Round 3 to somewhat tarnish the confidence of the American surfer, while Mulanovich had succumbed to Australia’s four-time ASP World Champion Stephanie Gilmore to get relegated to the fourth round.
As the fourth heat of Round 4 got underway, the 19-year-old Conlogue got off to a great start. She detected a juicy right-hander in the opening minutes of the battle and immediately paddled towards it to eventually score a 7.50 off it. As the heat progressed,
she managed to back it up with a 7.53-point wave, taking her heat-total to 15.03 points.
Mulanovich got off to a relatively slow start, but continued to build momentum as the heat-clocked ticked away. Entering the late stages of the battle, she posted a 6.00 on the score-board off her first business-wave. Requiring a near-perfect score off her
second business-wave to take the win, the Peruvian surfer only managed to add an additional 6.23 to her account to finish with a heat-total of 12.23 points, 2.80 points short of the required score.
The modest response by Mulanovich allowed Conlogue to eventually walk away with a convincing victory into the Quarter-finals.
With the conclusion of the fourth heat, Round 4 of Roxy Pro Gold Coast stood completed. The event organisers decided to get the Quarter-final battles underway as well on Tuesday.
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