Dimity Stoyle and Pauline Ado survive round 3 of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
Australia’s Dimity Stoyle walked away with top honours from the third heat of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro’s third round that was held at the beach-break of Praia do Guincho in Estoril, Portugal, on Saturday morning, June 11th.
Stoyle clinched the win and secured a spot for herself in the round of 12 by defeating a talented line-up of surfers in the four-way battle, which included France’s Pauline Ado, Hawaii’s Malia Manuel and Japan’s Nao Omura.
Ado managed to grab the runner-up position and extended her life in the competition by qualifying for the next stage of the competition. Manuel finished in third place, while Omura rounded out the last position, both of them getting eliminated from the competition
as a result.
Australian surfer Stoyle did not have a smooth sailing during the heat. Not only was she competing against three really talented surfers, she was also trying to adjust to the difficult surfing conditions, which included two-foot waves and strong off shore
winds. The going was made even tougher by the absence of any juice in the waves, which deprived her of an opportunity go for her signature moves, instead settling for relatively simpler and convention tricks.
Catching her first good wave almost half-way through the heat, she earned 6.40 points to move in the lead. She eventually increased the gap that separated her from the rest of the field on the scoreboard by locking another decent wave in the final moments
of the heat and earning 6.75 points from it. The heat-total of 13.15 turned out to be adequate to secure victory for her and cement her place in the next round of the event.
Ado, who is also participating in the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour, put up a commendable fight to try and stop her Australian rival from walking away with victory. Although her effort was futile as far as depriving Stoyle
of victory was concerned, she did manage to secure the second position, a satisfactory result as it kept her alive in the competition.
Manuel looked a little shaky during the heat and eventually had to pay a heavy price for it. Earning 5.75 and 5.30 points off her two waves, she finished in third place, failing to get into the safe zone.
Omura’s weak performance got her ejected from the competition as well. She struggled to catch waves and failed to make the most of the ones that she eventually caught. She finished in fourth place with a two-wave score of 7.90.
The ASP 6-Star Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is the fifth of seven stops on Women’s Star Tour and second of four stops on ASP Women’s European title race.
Tags: