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Top Seeds Dominate Legendary Pacific Coast Pro in Association with Commonwealth Bank
Author: ASP World Tour
ASP Women's World Tour surfer Coco Ho (HAW), 19, charging to an opening heat win.
Number one seed and current 2010 world number 2 ranked surfer Sally Fitzgibbons summed up the feeling of all the women at this event after her convincing heat win saying, “It’s so good for our event with a six star rating to actually hold priority over the 4 star Men’s, usually it’s the other way around and we often have to surf later in the day when the winds are up but we’re getting the best of the conditions here!”
“ Today’s waves are a lot of fun with clean winds and all the girls are scoring big – there’s a lot on the line at six star events as far as qualifying for the 2012 elite World Title tour goes and everyone’s surfing really well so winning here will require a sustained high scoring performance.”
Fitzgibbons opened the heat with an excellent 8.17 and went onto a comfortable win with a combined two wave heat tally of 15.17 leaving her opponents chasing a combination of score to catch her. New Zealand’s Wini Paul placed 2nd on a modest heat score of 8.26 to also advance to round three.
Local surfer Philippa Anderson caused the biggest upset of the morning winning her round two heat and eliminating highly rated Jessi Mylie-Dyer from Sydney. Anderson caught a strong 7.5 ride in the final minute of the heat to jump to 1st place defeating Hawaii’s Alana Blanchard with Mylie Dyer out in 4th.
Tyler Wright, the 16 year-old Northern NSW sensation continued her recent great form posting an outstanding 9 point ride early in her heat to take an easy win over Argentina’s Ornella Pellizari.
Fresh off her second placing at last week’s Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast Wright looked confident in today’s surf.
“Very different waves here in Newcastle to what we surfed at Snapper Rocks last week – Snappers a long peeling point wave whereas here at Merewether it’s a little shorter but still a lot of fun – you just need to select the right waves coming through and good scores are there – I’m happy with that first heat and with bigger waves apparently for the weekend we should be in for a great event” said Wright.
Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich, the 2004 world champion and current number 5 ranked surfer in the world looked comfortable winning through to round three in the final heat today when she defeated Lakey Peterson (USA) with Hawaiian Bethany Hamilton eliminated in 3rd place.
During the afternoon round three of the Burton Toyota Pro Men’s Pro resumed and the biggest upset was local favourite Ryan Callinan who was eliminated by USA surfer Jared Thorne who won the heat ahead of young northern NSW surfer Mitchell James (Kingscliff) who also progressed in second place.
Others to impress included Garrett Parkes (Byron Bay) and Yjiro Tsuji (JPN) while former great local surfer Luke Egan was narrowly eliminated in his round three heat late in the day.
Legendary Pacific Coast Pro in association with Commonwealth Bank round two results:
Australia unless otherwise stated – listed in order of 1st to 4th with 1st and 2nd progressing to round 3.
Heat 1: Malia Manuel (HAW), Lee Ann Curren (FRA), Laura Enever, Nicola Atherton Heat 2: Paige Hareb (NZ), Nikita Robb (ZAF), Armedine Sanchez (FRA), Freya Prumm Heat 3: Philippa Anderson, Alana Blanchard (HAW), Ellie –Jean Coffee, Jessi Miley-Dyer Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons, Wini Paul (NZ), Bruna Schmitz (BRA), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) Heat 5: Coco Ho (HAW), Amiya Doyle, Joanne Defay (FRA), Claudia Conclaves (BRA) Heat 6: Pauline Ado (FRA), Sarah Mason (NZ), Felicity Palmeteer, Gabi Cope (HAW) Heat 7: Silvana Lima (BRA), Alizee Arnaud (FRA), Nage Malamed (HAW), Erica Hosseini (USA) Heat 8: Tyler Wright, Ornella Palizari (ARG), Lauina McGrath, Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) Heat 9: Sage Erickson (USA), Dimity Stoyle, Taryn Chudleigh (ZAF), Jacqueline Silva (BRA) Heat 10: Claire Bevilacqua, Rebecca Woods, Bronte Macaulay, Paige Haggerston Heat 11: Sarah Baum (ZAF), Courtney Conlogue (USA), Canelle Bulard (REU), Suelen Narasia (BRA) Heat 12: Sofia Mulanovich (PERU), Lakey Peterson (USA), Bethany Hamilton (HAW) Justine Dupont (FRA)
The event is live webcast via www.aspaustralasia.com/live/2011/surfest and all results and heat draw across both men’s and women’s can be found on this site.
The event resumes early tomorrow with both Men’s and Women’s action likely.