Cory Lopez and Gabriel Medina advance to Round 4 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
After narrowing down the field from 96 to 24 surfers over the course of two rounds in two days, the Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 started off with the round of 24 (Round 3) on Thursday, June 16th, at the Ribeira D’Ilhas beach in Ericeira, Portugal.
America’s Cory Lopez managed to prevail over New Zealand’s Richard Christie in the first heat of the latest round to make a place for himself in Round 4 and bring his rival’s title pursuit to a premature finish.
The second heat was won by Brazil’s Gabriel Medina, who downed Northern Spain’s Aritz Aranburu to clinch the honours and eliminate his competitor from the competition.
The first heat of Round 3 turned out to be a low-scoring yet really intense battle between Lopez and Christie. The two could hardly be blamed for not putting up more attractive scores due to the challenging low tides and windy conditions prevailing at the
primary event site.
Lopez looked more uncomfortable during the heat as compared to his New Zealander rival, as he struggled to catch waves in an effort to collect a good score. However, he did manage to lock a good wave to earn a decisive score of 6.50 off it. He later followed
it up with a disappointing 2.87-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 9.37 points.
Christie looked more at ease as far as catching waves was concerned. However, that proved to be the only good thing about his performance during the heat. He kept on hunting for a good score to take his rival down, but only managed a 5.00 and 4.33 off his
two best waves to finish with a two-wave total of 9.33 points. Barely missing out on clinching the win due to a deficit of 0.04 points, he was forced to surrender victory to his American rival and get removed from the title contention.
The winner of the next heat came as no big surprise. There have been rumours prevailing in the surfing community about the Brazilians taking over the competitive scene, and after witnessing the performances of surfers like Medina, the rumours seem to be
coming true.
Despite the unfavourable surfing conditions, the Brazilian nailed a 7.17 off a wave almost mid-way through the heat to take the lead. He soon added an additional 6.93 to his score to finish with a heat-total of 14.10 points.
Aranburu put up a determined fight to keep his rival from walking away with a comfortable win, but the effort turned out to be futile. Scoring 6.00 points off his first wave and following it up with a 6.50-point wave, he finished 1.60 points behind Medina,
consequently tasting defeat and getting eliminated from the competition, while sending the Brazilian to the next round.
For more updates on Round 3 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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