Favourites Struggle at Billabong Azores Islands Women’s Pro
SAO MIGUEL, Azores Islands/Portugal (Tuesday, August 10, 2010) – Day one of the Billabong Azores Islands Women’s Pro presented by Nissan an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) sanctioned event kicked off with the ASP Women’s 6-Star in small clean 2-3ft conditions completing two rounds of competition with many standout performances from the stacked international field. After a forced halt to proceedings due to the high tide an afternoon session was celebrated at the main event site.
All surfers competing at the Billabong Azores Islands Pro presented by Nissan are out to gain crucial world rating points and all Europeans are searching to improve their points tally on the European Open Series title race.
Joanne Defay (FRA) 17, and Pauline Ado (FRA) 19, led the charge on day one of competition with wins in their respective heats to advance to the third round. In a stacked heat Ado overcame current ASP Women’s World Tour ratings nº2 Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) who placed second ousting Felicity Palmateer (AUS) and Alana Blanchard (HAW). Defay was not to be out done when in the first heat after over a 6 hour break for the tide came home with the goods and will join Ado in heat nº1 of the next round.
Getting off to what turned out to be an unbeatable lead Defay surfed with power and flow in the tricky conditions to obtain a real confidence boost heading into the business end of the draw.
“It was not easy and the waves were not easy either and with the long wait for the tide to go out it was all very difficult. I got that first waves which was a 5.33 and when you get a wave like that it gives me the confidence for the rest of the heat so it was good and in the end I was thinking that everything was ok and that I would get through the heat.”
Despite finishing second Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) remains one of the firm favourites with a first up appearance early this morning scoring an 8.5 out of a possible 10 the highest single score and a two wave total of 15.93 the highest of the event. Sophia Mulanovich (PER) scored a last minute ride to also place second in her heat behind Tyler Wright (AUS) to scrape through to live to fight another day. Trailing throughout the entire clash which Wright totally dominated the 2004 ASP Women’s World Champion laid down a series of strong backhand turns to oust Bruna Schmitz (BRA) and Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) in one of the closest finishes of the round.
Courtney Conlogue (USA) 18, also one of the favourites in the Billabong Azores Islands Women’s Pro presented by Nissan placed second in her round two clash. Getting off to a good start she was beaten on the siren by Nicola Atherton (AUS) and her last scoring wave. Conologue summed up the conditions and the reasons behind the results coming through in the after session.
“It reminds me a lot of Virginia Beach in Florida and you just have to play your cards and hopefully it goes your way because you have to be in the right spot at the right time to get through.”
“Definitely none of these heats are easy,” continued Colognue. “With these waves you really have to work twice as hard because you have the competitors who want to get through and then you have the waves as a factor as well so you just have to be where you need to be in each heat and hopefully you can get through.”
The Billabong Azores Islands Pro presented by Nissan with make a call at 07:00 (local time) tomorrow for both men and women with the firm possibility that round one of the men’s event will kick off proceedings.
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UPCOMING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS BILLABONG AZORES ISLANDS WOMENS PRO
Heat 1: Joanne Defay (FRA), Pauline Ado (FRA), Courtney Conlogue (USA)
Heat 2: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS), Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Nicola Atherton (AUS)
Heat 3: Nage Melamed (HAW), Tyler Wright (AUS), Bianca Buitendag (ZAF)
Heat 4: Laura Enever (AUS), Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Cannelle Bulard (REU)
BILLABONG AZORES ISLANDS WOMEN PRO ROUND 2 RESULTS
Heat 1: Joanne Defay (FRA) 10.00, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 8.90, Claudia Goncalves (BRA) 6.77, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 5.90
Heat 2: Pauline Ado (FRA) 12.17, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 11.03, Felicity Palmateer (AUS) 9.73, Alana Blanchard (HAW) 6.60
Heat 3: Nicola Atherton (AUS) 10.77, Courtney Conlogue (USA) 10.23, Bethany Hamilton (HAW) 9.60, Ornella Pellizzari (ARG) 5.17
Heat 4: Nage Melamed (HAW) 14.40, Laura Enever (AUS) 13.24, Nikita Robb (ZAF) 9.70, Tarryn Chudleigh (ZAF) 5.50
Heat 5: Tyler Wright (AUS) 13.00, Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 10.74, Bruna Schmitz (BRA) 10.64, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.77
Heat 6: Cannelle Bulard (REU) 11.50, Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) 10.00, Justine Dupont (FRA) 7.00, Sage Erickson (USA) 4.57
BILLABONG AZORES ISLANDS WOMEN PRO ROUND 1 RESULTS
Heat 1: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 14.84, Pauline Ado (FRA) 9.73, Suelen Naraisa (BRA) 6.63, Anne Cecile Le Tallec (FRA) 4.53
Heat 2: Joanne Defay (FRA) 6.84, Felicity Palmateer (AUS) 6.33, Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 4.80
Heat 3: Alana Blanchard (HAW) 14.67, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 9.33, Freya Prumm (AUS) 5.27
Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 15.93, Claudia Goncalves (BRA) 11.50, Francisca Santos (PRT) 3.13
Heat 5: Bethany Hamilton (HAW) 12.67, Nage Melamed (HAW) 10.43, Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 7.66, Amy Stewart (AUS) 6.00
Heat 6: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 13.57, Nikita Robb (ZAF) 8.87
Heat 7: Laura Enever (AUS) 7.00, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 6.83, Amandine Sanchez (FRA) 5.10
Heat 8: Tarryn Chudleigh (ZAF) 9.84, Ornella Pellizzari (ARG) 8.67, Paige Hareb (NZL) 6.53
Heat 9: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 11.57, Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) 8.70, Erica Hosseini (USA) 7.90, Carina Da Silva (PRT) 7.70
Heat 10: Tyler Wright (AUS) 12.03, Sage Erickson (USA) 7.70, Joana Rocha (PRT) 3.43
Heat 11: Justine Dupont (FRA) 10.33, Bruna Schmitz (BRA) 6.07, Lore Eizaguirre (EUK) 4.06, Sarah Beardmore (GBR) 3.96
Heat 12: Cannelle Bulard (REU) 9.67, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.97, Jessica Santorik (NZL) 5.40
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