The quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic concludes
The final day of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic, an Association of Surfing Professional (ASP) Women’s World Tour event, kicked off with the quarter-finals on Friday, May 6th at the Dee Why Point in New South Wales, Australia.
A lay day had been called at the Beachley Classic after the tides turned out to be real low. However, even though the conditions had not improved considerably on Friday, the organisers still decided to get on with the proceedings. Some of the best female
surfers in the world found themselves adjusting to the difficult conditions as they competed for the coveted semi-final spot on offer.
The day kicked off with the extremely talented surfer from Peru, Sofia Mulanovich, facing Brazil’s Silvana Lima in the first heat of the quarter-final. As the tides refused to cooperate with the event, the surfers had to settle for less-than-decent waves
to do something special and impress the judges. In the end, Mulanovich walked from the battle victorious, scoring 11.83 against her competitors’ unimpressive 7.33.
The second heat of the day turned out to be an extremely intense contest between the two in-form Australia surfers, Sally Fitzgibbons and Nikki Van Dijk. The two surfers had already met in the first round of the event and it was 16-year-old Dijk who had
walked away victorious. However, the winner of the previous two stops of the ASP Women’s World Tour had managed to find her rhythm soon after and started dominating her rivals since then.
When the two surfers faced each other on Friday, it was difficult to say who will emerge triumphant. The way both the Australians surfed, it became even harder to tell who the winner would be. However, Fitzgibbons defeated her rival in the end, but only
barely. She scored 13.37 to best Dijk by 0.11 points.
The third heat pitted Hawaii’s Carissa Moore against her fellow-national, Melanie Bartels. While the previous heat had been a real nail-biter, the current heat turned out to be pretty one-sided. Bartels’s poor wave selection resulted in her scoring 8.76
and she ended up surrendering the victory and semi-final spot to Moore, who had scored 16.00. Moore had done exceptionally well to earn such a good score even under such challenging conditions.
In the final heat of the quarter-final, the reigning four-time ASP Women’s World Champion, Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore, faced her compatriot and an ASP rookie, Tyler Wright. The tide conditions had improved and the surfers found themselves blessed with
good surfs to show off their stylish manoeuvres.
Though Wright put up an impressive and determined fight, Gilmore still managed to prevail and grab the last remaining spot in the semi-final. Gilmore scored 17.17, the highest score of the quarter-final, against Wright’s 15.10.
The quarter-final had narrowed the field to four surfers who were currently in excellent form. The semi-final is expected to be a real epic showdown as the top ASP surfers face each other off for to find a place in the final.
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