Laura Enever downs Nikki Van Dijk to move into Round 3 of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic
Australia’s Laura Enever managed to edge past her compatriot Nikki Van Dijk in the third heat of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic’s Round 2 that resumed at the Dee Why point in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, April 20.
Enever’s crucial win over Van Dijk served to carry her through into the third round of the event, while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
The fourth of seventh stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Title Series was playing host to a handful of prestigious female surfers who were determined to collect a good result and coveted ASP Women’s World Tour rating
points. With the tour already into its second half, there were not many opportunities left for the surfers to improve their position on the ranking table.
After failing to get a successful result on day 1 of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic, both Enever and Van Dijk were forced to take a trip into the second round to battle it out for the Round 3 spot. There was no room for error as another failure meant
elimination from the event. With the stakes this high, the fans had no doubts regarding the intensity of the match-up.
As the third heat of Round 2 got underway, the event wildcard Van Dijk got off to decent start, locking her first wave in the opening minutes of the heat to open her account with a 5.00. After a long and desperate search, she managed to post a 5.50 on the
score-board to take her heat-total to 10.50 points.
Starting off real slow, the 20-year-old Enever seemed to be struggling to find her rhythm in the clean four-to-six foot waves that were on offer. Just when it seemed that the battle had pretty much slipped out of her hands, she caught a 4.25-point ride and
immediately backed it up with a decisive 8.25-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.50 points. The last-minute charge allowed her to turn the tables on her rival and thus walked away with the win into the third round.
“Nikki [Van Dijk] is incredible,” Enever said. “I knew it was going to be a tough heat for sure. When I saw I was the top seed in Round 2 and she was the wildcard, I knew we’d match-up. I was pretty nervous, I’m not going to lie. I know how good she can
surf. I’m so stoked I made it. It was really hard to choose the right waves and read which ones were going to be good.”
There was still plenty of action in store for the fans as the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic moved on to the remaining heats of the second round.
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