Lakey Peterson and Carissa Moore head into the Quarter-finals at the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival
America’s Lakey Peterson and Hawaii’s Carissa Moore walked away with top honours from their respective Round 3 heats of the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro, third event of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s
World Title Series, which continued at Fitzroy Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand, on Thursday, April 12.
Peterson put on a superb performance to down Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons and Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich in the third heat of Round 3 to advance directly into the Quarter-finals while relegating both her rivals to Round 4 to surf again.
The fourth heat saw Moore get the better of America’s Courtney Conlogue and Australia’s Rebecca Woods to advance through into the Quarter-finals, forcing both her rivals to take a trip of the fourth round in the process.
With promising surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site on Thursday, the day was expected to be full of enthralling battles between the prestigious ASP Top 17 female surfers as they battled it out to secure their place in the Quarter-final.
Peterson, 2012 ASP Women’s World Tour rookie, adjusted exceptionally well to the off-shore winds and clean four-to-six foot waves prevailing at Fitzroy Beach. Despite getting off to a slow start, the American surfer began a late charge to post an 8.80 on
the score-board and backed it up with an 8.40 to move to a heat-total of 17.20 points. The score held up until the end to seal the fate of the contest in her favour.
An in-form Fitzgibbons was forced to settle for runner-up place after scoring a 6.90 and 7.35 off her best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 14.25 points.
Mulanovich accompanied the Australian surfer into the relegation round after finishing with a heat-total of 12.70 points, which included a 6.45 and 6.25-point wave.
The next heat featured an exquisite performance by Moore, the 19-year-old reigning ASP Women’s World Champion, as she took a comprehensive victory over Conlogue and Woods.
The Hawaiian surfer went through a series of average scores before locking her first business-wave halfway through the heat to post an 8.75 on the score-board. She immediately backed it up with an 8.35-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 17.10 points,
which served to earn her victory and thus carry her through into the Quarter-finals.
“That’s a sudden-death round and you can end up with a 13th place,” Moore said. “So always a tough one to be in. I’m really stoked to be back in New Zealand. It’s always like a home away from home for me. It’s nice to see all my friends and my new family
here. It’s nice to be back. I did really well and won the event my first time here two years ago, and I got second last year, so I’m hopping to do well this year again too.”
Conlogue took second place after finishing with a heat-total of 14.55 points, which included a 6.90 and 7.65-point wave.
Woods failed to make much of an impact during the wave after scoring a couple of points in the four-point range for a heat-total of 9.60 points. As a result, she joined her American rival in the relegation round to surf again for the Quarter-final spot.
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