Alejo Muniz wins a tough Round 1 heat to move into Round 2 of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime
Brazil’s Alejo Muniz made his way into the second round (Round of 48) of the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime presented by Coca-Cola after claiming top honours in the 12th heat of Round 1 (Round of 96) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach
in Saquarema, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 22.
France’s Romain Cloitre took first runner-up place to accompany Muniz into the next round. Peru’s Cristobal De Col and Hawaii’s Kai Barger rounded out the third and fourth positions respectively, consequently making a premature exit from the competition
field.
96 of world’s best surfers had travelled to Rio de Janeiro to compete for a share of the $US 250,000 prize purse and coveted Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) ranking points that were on offer at the fourth event on the 2012 ASP PRIME calendar.
The surfing conditions prevailing at Itauna Beach on the opening day of the competition seemed like an ideal stage to host a series of enthralling battles, with light winds and six-to-eight foot waves giving surfers plenty of opportunity to put their skills
on display.
Squaring off with Cloitre, De Col and Barger in the 12th heat of Round 1, Muniz knew he had to come up with something special to have a solid chance of grabbing the win.
As the heat got underway, the Brazilian surfer went through a series of average-wave scores before riding a juicy left-hander almost perfectly to post a 9.00 on the score-board. He went on to add a 5.00 to his account, consequently finishing with a decisive
heat-total of 14.00 points.
“Honestly, for me the only thing that really counted were the last 15 minutes of the heat,” said Muniz. “I knew that I had to surf two solid waves and do as much as I could on them, because if not, I knew I’d lose. I think I got pretty lucky because that
good one came in and I surfed it to the end to get that nine and there was still enough time to paddle back out and get another backup wave to win the heat. It was really tough, so I hope the next ones won’t be as bad.”
Cloitre clinched runner-up place collecting a couple of scores in the six-point range to finish with a heat-total of 13.10 points, thus successfully extending his life in the event.
De Col got off to a promising start, earning a 7.50 off his first business-wave, but failed to back it up with another good score and eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 12.33 points, thus finishing in third place. Barger finished in last place
with a two-wave total of 9.50 points. Both De Col and Barger found themselves out of the race for the event title and the related rewards.
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