Courtney Conlogue downs Nage Melamed in third quarter-final of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
The third quarter-final of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro was held on Saturday afternoon, June 11th, at the beach-break of Praia do Guincho in Estoril, Portugal.
America’s Courtney Conlogue managed to prevail over Hawaii’s Nage Melamed to clinch the win and advance to the semi-final stage of the competition.
Conlogue had been unarguably one of the most impressive surfers in the competition so far. Round after round, she had dominated her heats to remain alive in the competition to eventually make it into the quarter-finals. Surfing had neither been easy on Friday
nor on Saturday, but the American still managed to hold her own in the sea during the heats and walk away with top honours.
Making her way into the quarter-finals to face Melamed for the coveted semi-final spot, Conlogue was soaring with confidence due to her previous performances. Undeniably, she was the favourite to survive the heat. However, the Hawaiian surfer could not be
written off completely either, considering she too was a quarter-finalist and had reached this point after overcoming a number of talented surfers in the previous four rounds.
As the heat kicked off, Conlogue instantly placed her opponent under pressure by catching a wave and riding it for 5.50 points to move into the lead. It took Melamed almost half a heat to come up with a response, though it was not good enough. She merely
added 3.50 points to her account.
The American athlete soon locked another wave and threw down a combination of impressive manoeuvres to earn 7.25 points and further extend her lead, moving to a heat-total of 12.75 points. Requiring 7.75 points to make it through, Melamed found herself facing
a rather tough challenge. The task seemed even more difficult due to the two-to-three foot tides and strong cross shore winds that prevailed at the event site.
As expected, the Hawaiian failed to secure the required score, getting a 5.00 off her second wave instead, to finish with a two-wave total of 8.50 points. The weak response forced her to surrender victory to her American rival.
Three quarter-finalists had been confirmed and only one more slot was left. The battle for this slot was going to take place between New Zealand’s Sarah Mason and America’s Sage Erickson.
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