| Women hit the barrels in the IBA El Confital 2008 |
| Wednesday, 03 December 2008 09:49 |
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Day two at Confital dished up some astounding performances as the Top seeds in the Women’s hit the water for first time in clean 3-4 feet barrels. The swell was marginally smaller than yesterday but some of the sections were bordering on sublime. When riders paddled into the good ones, the whole point just rose to their feet in anticipation. A hundred metres of clean glassy wall with a dog leg end bowl to die for…this is the sort of stuff that you drool over in your dreams. To start the day the riders in R3 went to work off the back of an early low tide and David Galindo set a great standard with a solid win in heat 1. Other heat winners from round three were Kevin Orihuela (Esp) AitorOjeda (Esp) Jofre Gonzalez (Esp) Jose’ De La Cruz (Esp) Miguel Micias (Esp) Yusako Kyotani (Japan) and Alvaro Padron (Esp) With the tide coming in and a huge crowd building the stage was set for an incredible showdown with four girls all vying for the IBA World Women’s crown. Jessica Becker, Isabella Sousa & Neymara Carvalho all from Brazil and the lone European Eunate Aguirre from Spain all needed to progress out of round 1 and the pressure was on from the get go. Heat two went to Former World Champion Marina Taylor (Cny) with Eunate Agirre (Spn) outclassing Neuza Mochacho (Port) Heat three saw an upset when Isabella Sousa was beaten in third place by Luz Marie Gran Perez (Prc) and Jessica Becker (Brz) Isabella was humble in defeat. “No problem I’m OK” “ I know that I am young and I will be back stronger next year” said the Brazilian who really looked the person most likely to take the title for most of 2008. Heat 4 hit the water right as the surf started to peak and Neymara showed the sort of stuff that champions are made of when she opened with a 9.0 backed up by a 6.5 making her the highest single and combo scorer of the day. Venezuela’s Lumar Guittard held of a determined Cristiane Kale (Brz) to finish second. Heat 5 saw an all Australian double act with Lilly Pollard and Emma Roby outscoring Soria Rocha and Andrea Carvalho and heat six went to current ISA World Champion Natasha Sargardia (Prc) and Chiaki Okuama (Japan) at the expense of Nicole Flemming and Marta Perez. The day rounded out with R4 being surfed up to heat 6 and the highlight was seeing the young Venezuelan Sergio Alonzo in full flight on waves with true grit. This is the kid that beat the worlds best at just 15 on home turf last year and he is without doubt one of the most amazing talents coming through the ranks at the moment. All in all it was an graet day for all and tomorrow will only be better
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