Stephanie Gilmore prevails over Paige Hareb to enter the Dow AgroSciences Pro Final – Surfing News
Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore advanced through into the final of the TSB Bank NZ Surf Festival featuring the Dow AgroSciences Pro, third of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World tour, after triumphing over New Zealand’s
Paige Hareb in the first Semi-final that went down at Fitzroy Beach in Taranaki, New Zealand, on Saturday, April 14.
The showdown between the rampaging Australian surfer and in-form local talent turned out to be full of fireworks as neither of the two seemed prepared to accept defeat.
The 21-year-old Hareb had been treating her local fans to a series of exquisite performances over the last few days. Her competition had been a formidable one, but she had done exceptionally well to hold her own to gradually make her way through the initial
rounds and Quarter-finals to eventually get into the Semi-finals.
Pitted against the local talent was Gilmore, former four-time ASP Women’s World Champion and current No.1 on the 2012 ASP Women’s World Title rankings. The Australian sensation was expected to come down real hard on her Kiwi rival during the battle for the
title-shot while the latter was expected to put up a real strong fight.
With clean three foot waves breaking at Fitzroy Beach on Saturday, Hareb put her local knowledge of the waves to use and grabbed an early lead by scoring a 6.50 on the score-board. She continued the momentum to add an additional 7.57 points to her account,
finishing with a resultant heat-total of 14.07.
While the Kiwi surfer held the lead for most part of the heat, Gilmore eventually stepped up halfway through the heat to post a 6.77 on the score-board before locking the best wave of the heat to pull in a clean barrel followed by two turns. The outstanding
effort allowed her to add an additional 9.67 to her account to finish with a heat-total of 16.44 points. The score held up until the end to seal the fate of the Semi-final in her favour while removing Hareb from the contention for the event title.
“You get pretty pumped having the support of the hometown crowd,” Hareb said. “I lost my breath out the back and had to relax and take a few deep breaths. Looking back from the water and seeing friends and family and everyone from Taranaki was cool to see.
I’m glad the weather and waves have been great for everyone.”
Gilmore advanced through into the Final to face the winner of the clash between Hawaii’s Carissa Moore and America’s Lakey Peterson in the second Semi-final.
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