Stephanie Gilmore bounces back from Round 1 disappointment on day 2 of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro
Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore walked away with top honours from the third round of Billabong Women’s Rio Pro’s Round 1 that went down at the alternative event venue of Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, May 10.
She took the win over Hawaii’s Melanie Bartels to advance through into the third round of the competition while eliminating the latter from the contention for the event title.
“I was pretty worried going into that heat because the waves were just so minimal,” Gilmore said during her post-heat interview. “Performance-wise, when it’s inconsistent and very hard to surf, there are so many things going through your mind. It was really
nerve-wracking, especially going against Mel Bartels, she’s one of my favourite surfers and I was nervous.”
The fifth of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour had kicked-off in excellent surfing conditions, but the quality and frequency of waves did not turn out to be what the event organisers had hoped for on day
2. The action, however, was expected to be as gripping as ever.
Gilmore, current No.1 on the 2012 ASP Women’s World Title rankings, had gotten relegated to the elimination round after a surprise defeat in Round 1. However, there was hardly anyone who expected her to leave the competition field that easily and she did
not fail to live up to the expectations.
Pitted against Bartels in the third heat of Round 2, the former four-time ASP Women’s World Champion caught her first business-wave early in the heat to post an 8.50 on the score-board and later backed it up with an 8.20-point ride to finish with a heat-total
of 16.70 points.
Bartels failed to offer much of a challenge to her rival during the course of the battle. Collecting a 6.83 and 3.23 off her best-two waves, she finished with a heat-total of 10.06 points, thus conceding victory and thus the Round 3 spot to her rival.
Gilmore is currently the front-runner in the 2012 ASP Women’s World Title campaign and needs just one more excellent result to add yet another title to her name.
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