Image: Sofia Mulanovich helping the white team to victory (ASP Covered Images)
Make no mistake, surfers do a lot of waiting around! The Billabong Girls Pro was on hold again all yesterday, and round two is just getting started now at 8am local time. The day before yesterday was the team challenge, and the white team, consisting of Sofia Mulanovich, Claire Bevilacqua, Silvana Lima, Jacqueline Silva and Rebecca Woods, surfed to victory.
11.51am In 9 minutes time round two is due to get started, with Peruvian and former world champ Sofia Mulanovich, Roseanne Hodge and Aussie wildcard entrant Nicola Atherton first to surf. The top two surfers from the two heats in round two will go through to round three. Watch the whole thing online here.
Keep updating this post to get the latest news...
12.05pm Slightly messy, bumpy waves for the girls in round two today.
12.21pm Sofia Mulanovich leads with 12.50, but wild card Nicola Atherton is close behind with two 5.25 scores.
12.26pm Annnd it stayed that way until the end of the heat, so Sofia Mulanovich and Nicola Atherton go through. Next in is Jessi Miley-Dyer, Claire Bevilacqua, and Rochelle Ballard. Place your bets now!
12.30pm Rochelle Ballard takes an early lead, but Jessi Miley-Dyer soon takes over with a score of 7.50. Rochelle Ballard fact - she was a stunt double in Blue Crush and at 36 years old has been at the top of her game and on the tour for a lot of years!
12.45pm Jessi Miley-Dyer retaining her lead throughout the heat so far, but it's a closer call between Rochelle Ballard and Claire Bevilacqua. Rochelle Ballard needs a good result to stay on the tour, having place last in the last two events. Claire Bevilacqua is currently in joint twelfth place with two ninth place finishes. Having held down second place for most of the heat, Rochelle has now lost out to Claire who moves into second.
12.55pm Bad news for Rochelle Ballard, as she takes 17th place for the third time. Claire Bevilacqua and Jessi Miley-Dyer go through. It's straight onto round three now, no rest for the wicked. Claire Bevilacqua is straight back out there. Not only has she got to surf two heats in a row, but she has to do it against current number one, Stephanie Gilmore. Gulp.
1.53pm True to form current joint number one Stephanie Gilmore has progressed onto round four ahead of Claire Bevilacqua, who after a three day break had to surf two heats in a row! In the current heat it looks like Sofia Mulanovich has advanced into round four, although there was only one point separating her and Jacqueline Silva. All the second place surfers in round three get a ninth place finish, which equals US$2,500 in cash and 360 points towards the tour.
1.57pm Next up heat three is an all Aussie affair, Jessi Miley-Dyer is in her second heat of the day up against Samantha Cornish.
2.08pm Stephanie Gilmore has just revealed that the quarter finals might go ahead today as well! Busy, busy. In the quarters she's up against Sofia Mulanovich- so that'll be an interesting on to watch for sure.
2.11pm Just for fun, here's a prediction of who we think will go through in the last heats of round three. How many will we get right?
Predictions...
Heat 4: Gotta be Chelsea Hedges, as great as Nicola Atherton is doing right now, Chelsea is, as the commentator just said, 'on fire!'.
Heat 5: I'm gonna go with reigning world champ Layne Beachley on this one. Much as I want to cheer on the sole Euro Caroline Sarran.
Heat 6: Tough one, but I'll plump for Amee Donohoe over Silvana Lima.
Heat 7: Is between Megan Abubo and Rebecca Woods. I've tossed a coin and I'm going with Rebecca Woods.
Heat 8: The two Melanies! My money's on Aussie Melanie Redman-Carr.
Keep reading to find out if I'm right!
2.19pm Although Samantha Cornish is leading, Jessi Miley-Dyer could still take it if she catches something right now, will she? Seems not, despite a last second wave, she's out. Samantha Cornish goes through and will face either Chelsea Hedges or Nicola Atherton who are in now.
2.37pm The 2005 world champion Chelsea Hedges is currently leading ahead of wild card entrant Nicola Atherton.
2.46pm Well Nicola Atherton put in a good show, getting a 6.85 with only a minute to go. Chelsea Hedges however goes through with a combined score of 13.00.
3.06pm Looks like Layne Beachley still has it, she's posted a 5.00 and a 6.00 and is leading the heat.
3.11pm Yep, Laybe Beachley goes through. Two out of two for our predictions so far!
4.06pm Well, heat six was indeed closely contested, with only 0.25 in it, Amee Donohoe lost out to Silvana Lima. In heat seven Rebecca Woods was the winner, and Megan is out. Not bad going with the predictions, three out of four right.
5.10pm Right, here's the full results of round three for you...
Heat 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.50 def. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 4.70
Heat 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 12.75 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 11.25
Heat 3: Samantha Cornish (AUS)10.85 def. Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS) 8.40
Heat 4: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 13.00 def. Nicola Atherton (AUS) 10.10
Heat 5: Layne Beachley (AUS) 11.00 def. Caroline Sarran (FRA) 7.15
Heat 6: Silvana Lima (BRA) 11.25 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 11.00
Heat 7: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 13.75 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 7.75
Heat 8: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 10.00 def. Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 2.75
So my predictions weren't that hot after all.
Here's the match ups for the quarters, scheduled for later today...
Heat 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Sofia Mulanovich (PER)
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Chelsea Hedges (AUS)
Heat 3: Layne Beachley (AUS) vs. Silvana Lima (AUS)
Heat 4: Rebecca Woods (AUS) vs. Melanie Bartels (HAW)
That first heat's gonna be an exciting one for sure! Here's what Sofia had to say about it, 'I have to step it up, I have a pretty tough heat coming up so I just have to go out there and be confident and just focus on my own surfing, not worry to much about what Steph is doing.'
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