Damien Hobgood and Brett Simpson survive Round 2 at Billabong Pro Tahiti
America’s Damien Hobgood and his fellow countryperson Brett Simpson qualified for the third round of Billabong Pro Tahiti, the latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after claiming top honours in their
respective Round 2 heats that went down at Teahupo’o in Taiarapu, Tahiti, on Friday, August 17.
Australia’s Matt Wilkinson finished behind Hobgood to surrender the Round 3 spot to his rival, consequently finding himself eliminated from the contention for the event title.
Simpson managed to take the win over Australia’s Adam Melling in the 10th heat to advance to the next round of the competition while removing the latter from the event.
The latest day of the elite tour event continued to deliver exquisite performances as the surfing elite took each other on to try and extend their life in the competition. Due to the pressure of elimination, the surfers were expected to push hard and deliver
performances that were bound to get the crowd in attendance as well as the global audience excited.
The ninth heat saw Hobgood and Wilkinson pitted against each other in a man-on-man battle for the Round 3 spot. The lacklustre performance on day 1 of the competition had left them both fighting for survival, giving them very little room for error.
Hobgood locked his first business-wave to post a 6.17 on the score-board and went on to add an additional 8.43 points to his account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 14.60 points.
Wilkinson failed to come up with an adequate response, scoring a mere 4.67 and 5.67 off his best-two waves to register a heat-total of 10.34 points.
The tenth heat saw Simpson and Melling take each other on in a man-on-man battle for the Round 3 spot.
The American surfer scored a 4.77 off his first business-wave and went on to back it up with a 5.50-point ride, thus finishing with a heat-total of 10.27 points.
Melling responded with a lacklustre performance, struggling to find his rhythm and only managed to score a 2.10 and 1.33 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 3.43 points. As a result, he was forced to surrender the Round 3 spot to his rival.
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