Rosy in Spanish Quarters

Rosanne Hodge is in action at the Rip Curl Girls Festival in Santander, Spain. Photo: Barry Tuck

 Rosanne Hodge reached the quarterfinals of an ASP women’s World Tour event for the first time in her fledgling pro surfing career, after defeating current world No.1 Stephanie Gilmore in Round 3 of the R560 000 Rip Curl Girls Festival in Santander, Spain on Thursday.

Competing in inconsistent tide-affected one-metre waves, and needing a 4.21 point score with just over a minute remaining, the East London teenager strung together a series of manoeuvres to earn 5.50 from the judges to qualify for the last eight.

Both Hodge and Gilmore are in their rookie year at the highest level of women’s surfing, but their paths have differed.

While the South African has struggled to make an impact against the world’s top 17 women who contest the World Tour, failing to progress beyond the third round in the first three events of the year, Gilmore has raced into the ratings lead thanks to her victory at Bell’s Beach, Australia, at Easter after placing fifth in the season opener and then third in Brazil last month.

It was Hodge’s second successive heat win over the Australian, coming after she relegated Gilmore to third place in their opening encounter at the same venue yesterday.

Gilmore then posted the highest heat score of the event in the second round – 17.0 out of 20 – to qualify for Round 3 where the seeding pitted the two against each other again.

Hodge now faces world No. 4 Silvana Lima (Brazil) in the fourth of the quarters with the winner coming up against whoever triumphs in the match up between 7X ASP World Champion Layne Beachley and fellow Australian Amee Donohoe.

The top half of the draw sees world No. 2 Samantha Cornish versus Melanie Redman-Carr in another all Australian affair while former world champ Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) takes on wildcard Alana Blanchard (Hawaii) who shocked 2005 world champ Chelsea Hedges (AUS) in Round 3.

Victory over Lima when the contest resumes would see Hodge force her way into the top 10 on the rankings, who automatically re-qualify for the next year on the elite World Tour, with three events remaining.