Tyler Wright and Bianca Buitendag shine in Colgate Plax Girls Rio Pro quarter-finals
Australia’s Tyler Wright and South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag successfully earned their place in the semi-finals at the Colgate Plax Girls Rio Pro, the fifth of seven stops on the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Championship
Tour, after walking away with top honours from their respective quarter-final heats that took place at Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Wright got the better of Hawaii’s Malia Manuel in the third quarter-final to secure her place in the semi-finals, bringing the pursuit of the latter for the event title to a premature end.
The fourth quarter-final concluded with America’s Courtney Conlogue succumbing to Buitendag, getting removed from the contention for the event title while sending her rival through into the next stage of the competition.
The crowd anticipated to get treated to a heavy dose of exhilarating action as the in-form female ASP elite got set to take each other on in peaky two-to-three foot waves that were on offer at the primary event site of Barra da Tijuca.
One look at the potential scoring opportunities was all it took to get convinced that the contest was going to be exciting.
Wright, the young Australian sensation who has been in great form since the start of the 2013 season, took on Manuel in the third quarter-final, her eyes fixed on nothing but the semi-final slot.
As the contest got underway, Wright did not waste too much time to open her account. After going through a few ordinary scores, she took the lead with a very impressive 8.33-point ride. However, she did not stop there, but instead backed it up with a 7.50-point
wave to cement her lead over her rival and get to a heat-total of 15.83 points.
Manuel put up an impressive fight, though her effort turned out to be in vain as she finished 2.09 points behind her rival with a heat-total of 13.74 points, which included a 7.07 and 6.67-point wave.
The fourth quarter-final saw Buitendag get the better of Conlogue, another in-form surfer, by registering a heat-total of 12.20 points against her rival’s two-wave total of 11.33 points.
The margin of merely 0.87 points was what allowed her to advance through to the semi-finals while eliminating the American surfer from the competition.
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