Sofia Mulanovich clinches victory in round two of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich walked away victorious from the fourth heat of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro’s round of 48 on Friday, June 10th, which was held at Praia do Guincho beach in Estoril, Portugal.
It seems that mother-nature does not harbour any positive feelings for the sport of surfing. In the recent weeks, she refused to bless the surfing events with good surfing conditions. Much to the disappointment of the surfers, the latest Association of Surfing
Professionals (ASP) 6-Star event at Praia do Guincho beach was not spared either. Two-to-three foot tides, accompanied by offshore winds, welcomed the surfers on Friday.
The demanding conditions threatened to put a lot of female surfers out of rhythm, but the 2004 ASP Women’s World Champion, Mulanovich, had no intention of faltering and going down. Taking the challenge head-on, she kicked off the fourth heat with a decent
wave, scoring 6.00 points off it.
Searching for another good wave through the course of the battle, she eventually came across one in the final moments. Locking it, she executed a couple of tricks to earn 5.75 points for the wave from the judges and move into first place with a heat-total
of 11.75 points.
Australia’s Brittani Nicholl was nothing short of impressive either and gave a tough time to her Peruvian rival. She instantly grabbed the lead with her first wave, scoring 6.25 points off it, extending it immediately by scoring 5.00 points off her very
next wave to move to a two-wave total of 11.25 points.
Nicholl was well on her way to victory if it wasn’t for Mulanovich’s second wave in the final moments of the heat. Settling for second position, the Australian surfer did not seem too disappointed as the result was good enough to ascertain her place in the
next round along with Mulanovich.
Brazil’s Bruna Schmitz and Peru’s Valeria Sole failed to make a solid impact during the heat, finishing with a heat-total of 8.10 and 6.25 points respectively. Rounding out the bottom-two positions, both the surfers were eliminated from the event title race.
The 6-Star Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is the second of four stops of ASP Women’s European tour.
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