Justine Dupont defeats Paige Hareb to enter Round 3 of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic
France’s Justine Dupont got the better of New Zealand’s Paige Hareb in the fourth heat of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic’s Round 2 that continued at the Dee Why point in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, April 20.
With her win over Hareb, Dupont advanced through into the third round of the event while bringing the competition to a premature end for her rival in the process.
The stormy conditions prevailing at the primary event site cleaned up on Friday, making the day quite ideal for a series of intense battles that were scheduled to take place. The prestigious elite surfers were looking forward to putting on strong performances
in the clean four-to-six foot waves that were breaking at the primary event site.
Dupont, the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour rookie, did not have the best of starts to the season, missing the first event due to injury and then getting no better than a 13th place finish in the following events.
Looking to make a stronger impact at the fourth of seven stops on the ASP Women’s World Title Series, the French surfer braced herself to make bounce back from a Round 1 disappointment.
Pitted against Dupont in the fourth heat of Round 2 was Hareb. Both the surfers were standing on the edge and needed to deliver in order to remain in contention for the event title. Hareb, however, had an edge over Dupont due to her experience of competing
in the ASP women’s elite tour, though her current form kept her from coming off as an intimidating opponent.
As the battle for the Round 3 spot got underway, the 21-year-old Hareb got off to a decent start, locking her first business-wave to post a 5.50 on the score-board. However, Dupont immediately put her rival under pressure by responding with an impressive
7.50-point ride to take the lead.
The French surfer went on to add an additional 4.65 points to her account off her second business-wave, thus moving to a heat-total of 12.15 points. Hareb needed to step up and score big off her second business-wave, but failed to do much off her second
business-wave. Earning a 5.00 off it, the Kiwi surfer finished with a heat-total of 10.50 points. The 1.65-point deficit forced her to concede victory and thus the Round 3 spot to Dupont, making it the first heat-win for the latter since joining the elite
ranks.
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