DAMIEN POULLENOT / ASP
Hawaii’s Carissa Moore defeated Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore by 0.45 points to reach the quarterfinals Friday at the EDP Cascais Girls Pro in Portugal.
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Hawaii’s Carissa Moore overcame a huge challenge on Friday at the EDP Cascais Girls Pro in Guincho, Portugal, defeating defending world champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia to reach the quarterfinals.
Moore, who next faces rookie Bianca Buitendag of South Africa, scored a two-wave total of 13.80 on Friday to edge Gilmore’s 13.35. The win kept alive Moore’s hopes for a second world championship.
“It was a nerve-wracking heat,” Moore said. “When we started, Steph paddled out at a completely separate bank and I had no idea we could even surf it. She is really smart though and you can’t leave someone like Steph alone on her own peak — she’s too good. So I moved down there and it was a close heat. It was tough.”
Hawaii’s Coco Ho also advanced, scoring a 14.50 to beat New Zealand’s Paige Hareb (13.55) and Australia’s Tyler Wright in the third round. Hareb came back with a fourth-round victory to set up a quarterfinal match against Ho.
U.S. surfers Sage Erickson and Courtney Conlogue square off in one of the remaining quarterfinals matchups, and Australians Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons will battle in the other.
In the ASP men’s event in Le Penon, Seignosse, Australia’s Mick Fanning beat Brazil’s Gabriel Medina in the final to win the Quiksilver Pro France.
Fanning defeated Hawaii’s John John Florence 17.00-13.77 in the quarterfinals earlier in the day, then reached the final with a victory over countryman Joel Parkinson in the semifinals.