Stephanie Gilmore and Pauline Ado triumph in Round 2 heats of Roxy Pro France 2011
The second round of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour event, Roxy Pro, wrapped up with the fifth and sixth heat at La Grande Plage in Biarritz, South Africa, on Thursday, July 14th.
Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore brought Hawaii’s Alana Blanchard’s Roxy Pro to a premature end by defeating her in the fifth heat and advancing to the third round of the event.
The sixth heat saw France’s Pauline Ado prevail over Hawaii’s Melanie Bartels to go through to the next round, while removing her rival from the contention for the event title.
The four-time and reigning ASP Women’s World Champion, Gilmore was without any doubt a force to be reckoned with and Blanchard could be considered unfortunate to be pitted against her in a battle for survival in the sudden-death Round 2.
As the battle kicked off, the Australian phenom got down to business without wasting any time and locked a wave to earn 5.17 points off it, instantly putting her Hawaiian rival under pressure.
Both the surfers kept the hunt for good scores going for quite a while and it was near the end that Blanchard finally caught the first of her two best waves, earning 4.93 points off it to release some pressure. However, Gilmore had no intention of letting
her rival relax and immediately caught a wave to throw down a string of impressive manoeuvres to earn 7.50 points off it to move to a heat-total of 12.67 points.
Desperately in need of 7.57 points, Blanchard caught one final wave of the heat and went hard at it, but only managed to earn 5.10 points and ended up with a heat-total of 10.03 points. As a result, she was forced to watch her rival advance to the next stage.
The final heat of Round 2 pitted France’s Ado against Hawaii’s Melanie Bartels. Both the surfers had failed to impress in the first round but had an opportunity to extend their life in the event by making up for the first round disappointment in Round 2
and earning a spot in the next round.
While Ado managed to come up with an impressive second round performance, it seemed that Bartels was still far from finding her rhythm, which proved costly for her.
As the heat kicked off, the French surfer opened her account with a 6.17-point wave. She continued to impress the crowd and judges as the heat progressed and had added another 6.60 points to her account by the time the heat concluded, bringing her to a heat-total
of 12.77 points.
Rather than putting up a fight to stay alive in the competition, Bartels completely succumbed to the pressure and the testing surfing conditions. She only managed to score 2.33 and 3.40 off her two best waves, finishing with a heat-total of 5.73 points.
The disappointing performance caused her to miss out on the Round 3 spot.
With the conclusion of the sixth heat, the field which had started with 18 surfers, narrowed down to 12 in-form surfers before the start of Round 3. The upcoming battles were expected to bring even more intense action as the world’s best surfers pursued
the event title.
For updates on Round 3 of Roxy Pro France 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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