Damien Hobgood and Richard Christie advance to next round: Fourth round of Super Surf International – Part 2
Surfing action continued at the Praia da Vila beach in Santa Catarina, Brazil, on Sunday. The field for Super Surf International had been chopped down to 12 surfers due to numerous eliminations and only those on top of their game remained in contention for
the event title.
Surfing conditions, surprisingly, were in favour of the surfers and there was hardly anyone who could complain about the condition of waves or wind. Ever since the event had kicked off on May 31st, Sunday had unarguably turned out to be the best
in terms of surfing conditions.
The fourth round continued with the third heat, featuring America’s Damien Hobgood in a battle against Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and South Africa’s Royden Bryson.
Bryson looked out of sort and failed to make a strong impact in the heat. The conditions were definitely not as difficult as he made them look. He only managed to get a score of 4.67 and 4.57 off his two waves, finishing at the bottom with a heat-total of
9.24.
The real showdown however, took place between Hobgood and Medina. Both the surfers were definitely in form and had exhibited some excellent performances in the last few days. Now, the two surfers were face-to-face in a battle for a quarter-final place.
The American surfer got off to an amazing start, scoring 7.17 points off his first wave. He followed it up with an outstanding second wave, throwing down a set of spectacular manoeuvres, to earn a 9.00 and finishing with a final score of 16.17.
Medina had no intention of letting the American walk away with victory and responded to the challenge impressively. He caught a wave in the middle stage of the heat to score 8.83 points off it and required only 7.35 points to deprive Hobgood of victory.
However, he failed to get the required score, scoring 7.17 points instead, to miss out on a quarter-final place by 0.17 points. However, both Medina and Bryson still have a chance to extend their life in the event by prevailing in the fifth round.
The final heat pitted New Zealand’s Richard Christie against Puerto Rico’s Dylan Graves and Brazil’s Miguel Pupo.
Christie got off to a great start, scoring 7.50 off the very first wave that he caught and soon followed it up with a 5.00-point wave to finish the heat with a total score of 12.50. The score, while unimpressive, proved to be sufficient to earn him the win
and a place in the quarter-final.
Graves finished the heat with a two-wave total score of 11.27, while the local favourite, Pupo, finished in third place with 8.84 points in total. Both, the Puerto Rican and Brazilian will now have to compete in the fifth round for survival.
For updates on the fifth round of Super Surf International, stay tuned to Bettor.com.
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