Billabong Girls Pro Itacar\u00e9 Brazil
\nStop No 3. of 7 on the 2007 ASP Women’s World Tour Praia da Tiririca, Itacar\u00e9, Bahia, Brazil August 20-27, 2007<\/p>\n
PRAIA DA TIRIRICA, Brazil (Monday, Aug. 20, 2007) \u0096 If Round 1 of the Billabong Girls Pro Itacar\u00e9 is any indication of what we can expect for the remainder of the 2007 ASP Women\u0092s World Tour, the battle between ratings leaders Chelsea Hedges (AUS) and Stephanie Gilmore(AUS) is set to be fierce. <\/p>\n
Hedges set the benchmark for her fellow competitors when she opened her account with a near perfect 9.50 (out of a possible 10.00) and followed it with a 9.00 leaving her opponents Nicola Atherton (AUS) and Jacqueline Silva (BRA) needing a combination of good scorning rides to catch her.\u0093I was just lucky,\u0094 Hedges said. \u0093It\u0092s one of those places where if you\u0092re in the right spot at the right time and those waves come through, it can make or break the heat. I caught a right and paddled back out and a left came straight to me and I thought. \u0091I can\u0092t not go!\u0092 It\u0092s just a matter of being in the right position out there.\u0094 <\/p>\n
Hedges, the 2005 ASP Women\u0092s World Champion, shares the World No. 1 spot with travel-buddy and rookie title contender Gilmore. The day\u0092s high scorer is well aware that she cannot give Gilmore an inch, and as her Round 1 performance proved, is thoroughly enjoying the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u0093It\u0092s awesome!\u0094 Hedges said. \u0093This is the first year in a while that I\u0092ve felt really, really motivated and I guess I needed someone like Steph to come along and amp things up. I love it, it\u0092s great for women\u0092s surfing and it makes me push myself even harder.\u0094<\/p>\n
Gilmore was equally as fired up about the battle for the ratings lead, emerging as one of the day\u0092s top scorers with an excellent 8.50 ride, to defeat Caroline Sarran (FRA) and Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS).<\/p>\n
\u0093Chels and I are staying together which is pretty crazy but it\u0092s going great,\u0094 Gilmore said. \u0093We\u0092re good mates and we love surfing together because we push each other and we just want to surf better. It\u0092s great traveling together but when a heat is on we know that we\u0092re going to do whatever it takes to win.\u0094<\/p>\n
Gilmore, one of the most progressive and influential girls on the ASP Women\u0092s World Tour at present, will be watched closely by her rivals as she progresses through the upcoming rounds. <\/p>\n
\u0093It\u0092s about pushing the limits, going for big moves and getting out of your comfort zone,\u0094 Gilmore said. \u0093There is no doubt that all the girls are going out there with a different frame of mind at this event and everyone will be looking to step it up.\u0094 <\/p>\n
World No. 4 Rebecca Woods (AUS) joined Hedges and Gilmore in pushing the limits on Monday. The former ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) champion posted the second highest two-wave heat total of the day (14.25 out of a possible 20.00) to dispose of local favorite Silvana Lima (BRA) and fellow Australian Claire Bevilaqcua.<\/p>\n
\u0093The waves are really hard,\u0094 Woods said. \u0093They can be all over the place but if you get the right one, you\u0092re stoked. That\u0092s what happened to me today, so I\u0092m really pleased and just looking forward to Round 3.\u0094<\/p>\n
Surfers finishing 1st and 2nd in the three-woman heats go straight to Round 3. The third place surfer in each of the six Round 1 heats surfs Round 2 and faces early elimination. <\/p>\n
Defending Billabong Girls Pro Champion Layne Beachley (AUS) had an adrenaline charged start to her Billabong Girls Pro Itacare campaign when she was locked out of her hotel room and almost missed her heat. <\/p>\n
\u0093I paddled out late because I came down to watch Chelsea\u0092s heat this morning and left my room unlocked,\u0094 Beachley explained. \u0093When I came back the cleaner had locked it and my key was inside – I thought I was going to miss my heat completely. I wasn\u0092t really aware of where I was going to surf so I just resorted to where I surfed last year and fortunately it paid off.\u0094 <\/p>\n
Despite her shaky start, Beachley defeated Hawaii\u0092s Megan Abubo and Rochelle Ballard to advance directly to Round 3. <\/p>\n
\u0093It\u0092s my first heat since Bells when I lost against Sofia in the Semifinals,\u0094 Beachley said. \u0093It\u0092s been a four month hiatus and I think I\u0092ve got a bit of work to do! It felt good to get started though and the conditions were pretty good out there.\u0094 <\/p>\n
All six heats of Round 1 were completed in punchy meter 3- 4 foot (1- 1.5 meter) surf today. The next call on Round 2 competition status will be made at 10am local time.<\/p>\n
Visit the media center on www.aspworldtour.com for transcribed athlete quotes, downloadable audio clips, complimentary hi-res images and more!<\/p>\n
The Billabong Girls Pro Brazil \u0096 live on www.aspworldtour.com!<\/p>\n
Round 1 Billabong Girls Pro Brazil Results:
\nHeat 1: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 11.10, Samantha Cornish (AUS) 10.90, Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 6.50 Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 14.00, Caroline Sarran (FRA) 8.60, Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS) 8.35 Heat 3: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 18.50, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 10.60, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 8.25 Heat 4: Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.75, Megan Abubo (HAW) 9.85, Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 8.75 Heat 5: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 11.65, Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 9.75, Roseanne Hodge (ZAF) 7.50 Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 14.25, Silvana Lima (BRA) 13.45, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 11.80<\/p>\n
Round 2 Billabong Girls Pro Brazil Match-Ups:
\nHeat 1: Sofia Mulanovich (PER, Roseanne Hodge (ZAF), Jessi Nicola Atherton (AUS) Heat 2: Rochelle Ballard (HAW), Miley Dyer (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billabong Girls Pro Itacar\u00e9 Brazil Stop No 3. of 7 on the 2007 ASP Women’s World Tour Praia da Tiririca, Itacar\u00e9, Bahia, Brazil August 20-27, 2007 PRAIA DA TIRIRICA, Brazil (Monday, Aug. 20, 2007) \u0096 If Round 1 of the Billabong Girls Pro Itacar\u00e9 is any indication of what we can expect for the remainder … Continue reading “HEDGES AND GILMORE OFF TO A CRACKER START AT BILLABONG GIRLS PRO ITACARE”<\/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":[21],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surfing-news-archive","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13603","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=13603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}