Ornella Pellizzari and Pauline Ado advance to third round of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro’s round of 48 continued with the eighth heat on Friday, June 10th, at Praia do Guincho beach in Estoril, Brazil.
Once the four-way battle subsided, it was Argentina’s Ornella Pellizzari who stood with the top honours, while France’s Pauline Ado rounded out the second position. Both the ladies qualified for the next stage of the competition.
Brazil’s Claudia Goncalves and Australia’s Georgia Fish finished in third and fourth positions respectively. As a result, both of them were eliminated from the contention for the event title.
Mother-nature did not seem to be in a mood to show any cooperation to the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star event on Friday. There were merely two-to-three foot waves hitting the beach and those too were accompanied by offshore winds. The
weather was not that bad, with a sunny sky and warm temperature, but the demanding surfing conditions put the surfers in a serious handicap. As a result, the heat became more of a battle of experience rather than skill.
The Argentinean surfer, Pellizzari, refused to bow down in front of the difficult conditions and met the challenge head on to come through and post a decent score to stay alive in the competition. Getting down to business right away, he caught a wave to
score 5.40 points off it and immediately followed it up with a 6.75-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.15 points. The score remained unbeatable till the end and allowed him to walk away victorious in the end, securing a spot for him in the next round
as well.
France’s Ado, who is also a competitor in the ASP Women’s World Tour, got off to a good start and locked a wave to earn 5.80 points in the middle stages of the heat. She only required 6.36 points off her second wave to clinch the first position, but only
managed to earn a second-wave score of 5.25. Ending up 1.10 points short of victory, she settled for the runner-up finish. The second-place finish was good enough to keep her alive in the competition.
Goncalves and Fish had a difficult time coping with the demanding conditions and ended up giving weak performances. The Brazilian surfer only managed to earn a score of 9.25 off her two waves, while the Australian surfer finished with a heat total of 8.20
points. Both the surfers were eliminated from the competition due to their inadequate scores.
The ASP 6-Star Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is the fifth event on the 2011 ASP Women’s Star Tour, as well as the second stop of ASP Women’s European series.
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