Laura Enever prevails over Sage Erickson in Round 2 of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro
Australia’s Laura Enever got the better of America’s Sage Erickson in the second heat of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro’s Round 2 that went down at the beach-break of Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, May 10.
With his success in the elimination round, Enever advanced through into the third round while Erickson found herself ejected from the contention for the event title.
While the fifth of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Title Series got off in excellent surfing conditions, the second day of the competition did not turn out to be that fortunate. While there were still one-to-three
foot waves breaking at the secondary event site, the frequency at what the potential scoring opportunities appeared were just not enough. The elite female surfers had to rely heavily on their luck during the course of the battles.
The second heat of Round 2 pitted Enever against Erickson in a battle for the Round 3 spot. Both the surfers had faltered during their respective Round 1 heats, thus forced into taking the long road to the third round. While the defeat in the first round
not proved to be that costly, another loss meant elimination from the contention for the event title.
Enever, current No.6 on the 2012 ASP Women’s World Title rankings, got off to a slow start during the second heat of Round 2. The demanding conditions kept her on the back-foot during the early stages of the bout, but she gradually built momentum to eventually
break free off the shackles and post a 6.33 on the score-board. Immediately following it up with a 6.63-point ride, she moved to a heat-total of 12.96 points.
Erickson pushed herself hard during the course of the battle, desperate to get her hands on a decent scoring opportunity. She attacked a number of waves, but failed to earn anything above an ordinary score off them. However, she eventually managed to score
a 6.33 off her first business-wave and backed it up with a 5.90-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 12.23 points. As a result, she was forced to concede victory to Enever, sending the latter through into the next round.
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