Stephanie Gilmore succumbs to Alessa Quizon in Round 1 of women’s Billabong Rio Pro
Hawaii’s Alessa Quizon was successful in jumping straight into the third round of the Billabong Rio Pro, the fifth of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour, after creating the biggest upset of the day in the
third heat of Round 1 that went down at Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 9.
The upset involved her victory over the current ASP front-runner Stephanie Gilmore from Australia and New Zealand’s Sarah Mason. Both her rivals were consequently forced into making a trip into the relegation Round 2, where they could not afford to settle
for anything than a win if they wished to stay alive in contention for the event title.
The latest stop on the women’s elite tour was scheduled to go down at the primary event site of Barra da Tijuca, but the availability of clean two-to-four foot waves breaking at Arpoador convinced the event organisers to opt for the alternative event venue.
The conditions prevailing at the latter had allowed a number of exquisite performances to be landed during men’s Round 1 of Billabong Rio Pro and the expectations were pretty much the same from women’s Round 1 of the competition.
Event wild-card Quizon found herself under the spotlight despite getting pitted against the former two-time ASP Women’s World Champion and current No.1 on the ASP World Title rankings Gilmore. Mason was also competing in the triple-threat heat for the Round
3 spot.
The 18-year-old Quizon left everyone at the event site stunned by getting the better of Gilmore to walk away with the win. The Hawaiian surfer scored a 6.33 off her first business-wave and soon backed it up with a 6.77-point ride to finish with a heat-total
of 13.10 points.
“It feels really good to beat Steph [Gilmore],” Quizon said. “I was so nervous before that heat. This morning, I wasn’t even officially in the event, and this afternoon, I’ve beat the four-time world champ. It’s hard to describe.”
Gilmore barely missed out on the win after finishing with a heat-total of 12.93 points, which included a 6.43 and 6.50-point ride. Both she and Mason, who collected a couple of scores in the four-point range for a heat-total of 9.27 points, still have a
chance of making the Round 3 cut by clinching victory in their respective Round 2 heats.
Tags: