Dion Atkinson and Julian Wilson advance to Round 4 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The last two heats of Quiksilver Pro Portugal’s round of 24 (Round 3) went down at the Ribeira D’Ilhas beach in Ericeira, Portugal, on Thursday, June 16th. Australia’s Dion Atkinson prevailed over Brazil’s Hizunome Bettero
in the 11th heat to advance to the next stage of the competition, removing his rival from the title race.
In the 12th heat, Australia’s Julian Wilson continued to remain dominant and comfortably downed France’s Joan Duru to clinch victory and bring his competitor’s title pursuit to a premature end.
The low tides and strong windy conditions at the primary event site presented the surfers with a tough challenge and tested them for both skills and experience. While good waves were really scarce, it was even more difficult to
make the most of the ones that occasionally popped up.
During the 11th heat, both Atkinson and Bettero struggled to cope with the conditions. However, Atkinson managed to catch a relatively good wave in the early stages of the heat to score 5.17 points off it. His rival
took some time to come with a substantial response, but eventually posted a 6.17 to move ahead of him.
In the final moments of the heat, the Australian added an additional 5.43 points to his account to move to a heat-total of 10.60, leaving Bettero to only require 4.43 off his second wave to clinch victory. However, the Brazilian
failed to accomplish the task and only managed a 3.77 off his final wave to finish 0.66 points behind Atkinson.
The final heat of Round 3 pitted Wilson against Duru for the last remaining slot in the next round. While both the surfers had remained really impressive over the last few days, the Australian unarguably enjoyed a better form.
The difference in form of the two surfers was made quite evident in heat 12. Wilson asserted his dominance quite early in the heat by locking a wave and going for a string of impressive moves to earn a near-perfect score of 9.27.
Duru, who had clearly failed to read the conditions, struggled to catch waves throughout the heat. He eventually caught one to open his account with an embarrassing 2.00 points. Adding a 7.27 to his account in the later stages
of the heat, he moved to a heat-total of 9.27 to equal the Australian’s first-wave score.
Wilson capped the heat with an 8.50-point wave to seal the fate of the contest, putting Duru out of title contention.
The conclusion of the 12th heat marked the end of Round 3, as well as Day 3 of the competition.
For updates on Round 4 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
Tags: