Laura Enever and Stephanie Gilmore advance into the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival Quarter-finals
Australia’s Laura Enever and her compatriot Stephanie Gilmore clinched top honours in their respective Round 3 heats of the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro, third of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals
(ASP) Women’s World Title Series, which went down at Fitzroy Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand, on Thursday, April 12.
Emerging triumphant in the first heat of Round 1, Enever advanced through directly into the Quarter-finals while forcing her compatriot Tyler Wright and America’s Sage Erickson to take a trip to relegation Round 4.
The second heat saw Gilmore get the better of Hawaii’s Malia Manuel and New Zealand’s Paige Hareb to confirm her place in the Quarter-finals while relegating both her rivals to Round 4 to surf again for a place in the next stage of the competition.
The prestigious female surfers continued their campaign for the coveted event title and more importantly ASP Women’s World Tour rating points in clean off-shore winds and promising four-to-five foot waves that were breaking at the primary event site on Thursday.
Pitted against Erickson and Wright in the first heat of Round 3, Enever had her hands full. Both her rivals were more than capable of making a strong impact on their day and were expected to put on a strong fight for the Quarter-final spot.
As the heat kicked-off, Enever got off to an excellent start, scoring a 9.00 off her first business-wave and kept the momentum going by unloading a series of exquisite tricks on her very next wave to add an additional 8.00 points to her account to finish
with a heat-total of 17.00 points. The score proved to be a decisive one, earning her a comprehensive victory over her rivals.
Erickson scored a 5.50 and an 8.90 off her best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 14.40 points, which served to put her in second place.
Wright, ASP Women’s elite tour sophomore, had to settle for third place after scoring a 6.00 and 3.55 off her best-two waves for a heat-total of 9.55 points. Consequently, she accompanied Erickson into the relegation Round 4.
The second heat of Round 4 saw Gilmore, former four-time ASP Women’s World Champion, put on a spectacular performance to completely steal the show. The 24-year-old Australian collected a couple of nines off her top-two waves to finish with a heat-total of
18.60 points, consequently walking away with the win.
“It was really fun out there!” Gilmore said. “I was just so excited to go surfing. That’s when you have the most fun in heats and when you get the best scores, when you’re excited to surf. There was lefts, rights and every waves out there is really high
quality. With a high score like that it should have been an easy heat, but Malia [Manuel] and Paige [Hareb] were ripping, they were throwing 8s and 7s back at me. This would probably have to be the best surf we’ve had at this event.”
Manuel, 2012 ASP women’s elite tour rookie, took second place after finishing with a heat-total of 14.25 points, which included an 8.50 and 5.75-point wave.
Hareb, the Taranaki local, scored an 8.80 and 5.20 off her best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 14.00 points, consequently finishing in third place.
Both Manuel and Hareb got relegated to Round 4 to have another go at the Quarter-final spot.
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