Billabong Girls Pro Brazil
\nEvent No. 4 on the ASP Women\u0092s World Tour Praia da Tiririca, Itacar\u00e9, Bahia-Brazil Aug 21-28, 2006<\/p>\n
www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabonggirls.com<\/p>\n
ITACAR\u00c9, Brazil (Thursday, August 24, 2006) \u0096 Former world champions Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Layne Beachley (AUS) and Chelsea Georgeson (AUS) were the only top seeds not strewn about the messy surf at Praia da Tiririca, Itacar\u00e9 today.<\/p>\n
Round three of Billabong Girls Pro Brazil saw several proven surfers fall to less-experienced competitors in the shifty two to three foot (half to one metre) surf this afternoon.Among the casualties was wildcard Maria Tita Tavares (BRA) who having surfed for six years on the ASP Women\u0092s World Tour herself, has spent more time in the competitive arena than 23-year-old Georgeson.<\/p>\n
Though the Brazilian wildcard was in form and gaining momentum after her five-star World Qualifying Series (WQS) win last week, she was unable to compete with Georgeson\u0092s powerful backhand attack.<\/p>\n
“I\u0092m pretty happy and relieved at the same time. I knew it was going to be one of the hardest heats of this event,\u0094 Georgeson said. \u0093Tita is almost unstoppable in these conditions and I just had to be confident and give it everything out there. It\u0092s pretty testing conditions and definitely different to what we\u0092ve been surfing all year. It was a good heat.”<\/p>\n
Georgeson who is currently sitting third in the world, will meet Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) in the quarterfinals tomorrow. With the shock elimination of Melanie Redman-Carr yesterday, both Georgeson and Beachley (currently rated second in the world) will be gaining ground on the ASP world ratings with every heat they make.<\/p>\n
“I\u0092ve been in this position so many times before,\u0094 Beachley said.\u0094 I used to study the ratings and work out how much closer I could get to whoever was in front of me, but at the end of the day we have five events left and there\u0092s heaps of time for me to catch up to Mel. There\u0092s also heaps of time for her to capitalize on the lead that she has.\u0094<\/p>\n
Beachley has other aspirations here at the Billabong Girls Pro Brazil.<\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092m not really focussing so much on trying to catch Mel, what I\u0092m trying to focus on is winning an event because I haven\u0092t done it for so long,\u0094
\nBeachley said. \u0093That\u0092s where I want to be\u0097every time I compete in an event I want to be on the winner\u0092s podium.”<\/p>\n
Beachley\u0092s last ASP Women\u0092s World Tour win was in Hawaii in 2004.<\/p>\n
Mulanovich posted the event\u0092s highest heat total (16.75 out of 20.00) in the final heat of the day. Opening her account with an 8.75 and then backing it up with an 8.00, even Jacqueline Silva\u0092s (BRA) 7.75 and 7.00 (scores that would have won most any other heat today) were of no assistance.<\/p>\n
“I knew it was going to be a hard heat because Jacque has been ripping the whole contest so I went out just trying to get the better waves and thank God I got a couple of lefts,\u0094 Mulanovich said. \u0093I feel confident on my backside so I knew that was the time where I had to do it. Congrats to Jacque also because she got some really good scores too. In any other heat she would have been first by far but I was just lucky with the waves.”<\/p>\n
Mulanovich will now meet rookie Silvana Lima (BRA) in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
“Silvana is such a good surfer, she\u0092s been ripping in her heats,\u0094 Mulanovich said. \u0093Actually, after Tahiti where I hassled her, she went \u0091Just wait and see, you\u0092re going to get it in Brazil!\u0092 so it\u0092s kind of funny that we have each other here. I\u0092m just going to go for it.”<\/p>\n
The young Brazilian is the only countrywoman still in contention and will be fiercely backed by fans on the beach. This also marks her third quarterfinal showing in four events \u0096 she has yet to reach the semis.<\/p>\n
“I\u0092m feeling really confident because I feel at home here,\u0094 Lima said.
\n\u0093There are a lot of people on the beach cheering for me and I know my mom is watching live on the webcast so I\u0092m feeling very comfortable and confident going into the quarterfinals. I feel like this is the right time for me to make it through.”<\/p>\n
Indications point to the quarterfinals, and quarterfinals alone, running tomorrow afternoon. A call on competition status will be made at noon tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Logon to http:\/\/www.aspworldtour.com\/billabonggirls\/ for heat by heat breakdowns, images and more!<\/p>\n
Round Three Results: (1st advances to the Quarterfinals; 2nd finishes equal 9th and earns US$3,000) Heat 1: Julia Christian (USA) 12.35 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 9.35 Heat 2: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 11.05 def. Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 10.75 Heat 3: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.10 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 10.10 Heat 4: Chelsea Georgeson (AUS) 12.35 def. Maria Tita Tavares (BRA) 9.50 Heat 5: Layne Beachley (AUS) 11.00 def. Serena Brooke (AUS) 9.75 Heat 6: Heather Clark (ZAF) 9.55 def. Keala Kennelly (HAW) 7.75 Heat 7: Silvana Lima (BRA) 14.75 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 8.50 Heat 8: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 16.75 vs. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 14.75<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billabong Girls Pro Brazil Event No. 4 on the ASP Women\u0092s World Tour Praia da Tiririca, Itacar\u00e9, Bahia-Brazil Aug 21-28, 2006 www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabonggirls.com ITACAR\u00c9, Brazil (Thursday, August 24, 2006) \u0096 Former world champions Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Layne Beachley (AUS) and Chelsea Georgeson (AUS) were the only top seeds not strewn about the messy surf … Continue reading “FORMER WORLD CHAMPS CHARGE AT THE BILLABONG GIRLS PRO BRAZIL”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asp-surfing-news","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}