Enrique Ariitu and Hiroto Arai power into Championship Moves Open Semi-finals
Tahiti’s Enrique Ariitu successfully downed India’s Hairil Anwar in the third Quarter-final, while Japan’s Hiroto Arai brought the competition to a premature finish for Australia’s Tim Macdonald in the fourth Quarter-final of the Association of Surfing Professionals
(ASP) 1-Star Championship Moves Open that went down at the Jan Juc Beach in Victoria, Australia, on Sunday, January 8.
With a last-minute win over Anwar, Ariitu advanced through into the Semi-finals, consequently eliminating the Indian from the competition.
Arai also confirmed his place in the Semi-finals by surpassing the local talent Macdonald in the final minutes of the heat to seal the fate of the contest in his favour.
With the conditions turning out to be pretty decent at the event site on Sunday, the Quarter-finals promised to be intense, something that had already turned out to be true as evidenced by the first and second Quarter-final.
As the third Quarter-final kicked off, Ariitu wasted no time getting down to business and locked a wave in the opening minutes of the heat to score 5.50 points off it. Anwar got off to a shaky start but eventually took the lead with a 6.00-point wave a few
minutes past the half-way stage.
Ariitu regained the upper-hand in the battle by earning 6.50 points off his second business-wave to move to a heat-total of 12.00 points. Anwar failed to trouble his rival again after only managing to add an additional 5.20 points to his account and thus
finishing with a heat-total of 11.20 points, consequently conceding victory to Ariitu.
The fourth Quarter-final saw Arai take on Macdonald in a battle for survival. Both the surfers had been pretty impressive during the previous rounds of the competition and were expected to put on a strong performance to increase their chances of advancing
into the next stage of the event.
As the contest got underway, the local talent, Macdonald, got off to a solid start with a 6.25-point wave. Arai soon came at par with his rival’s score to keep the fate of the Quarter-final completely uncertain.
As the heat progressed, Macdonald took an upper hand by adding an additional 5.50 points to his account and moving to a heat-total of 11.75 points. Arai, however, managed to surpass the Australian on the score-board by unloading a series of exquisite manoeuvres
on his second business-wave to score 7.50 points. Finishing with a resultant heat-total of 13.75 points, the Japanese surfer walked away with top honours.
With his win the fourth Quarter-final, Arai advanced to the Semi-finals to face Macdonald in a battle for the coveted finals’ slot.
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