Experience comes into play as Chris Ward prevails in Round 2 of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime
Chris Ward from American successfully made it into the third round (No-Loser Round of 24) of the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime presented by Coca-Cola after walking away with top honours from the sixth heat of Round 2 (Round of 48) that went down at the point-break
of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 23.
Brazil’s Jean Da Silva secured the runner-up place to accompany Ward into the next round of the competition. His fellow countryperson Alejo Muniz finished third, while Peru’s Gabriel Villaran rounded out the fourth position. The bottom-two position resulted
in the elimination of both the surfers from the contention for the event title.
The fourth event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME calendar put up a prize purse of $US 250,000 and ASP ranking points for grabs, thus attracting the top surfing talent from around the globe to the point-break of Itauna Beach.
The four-to-six foot waves gracing the event site contributed to the excitement that was in store for the fans that were in attendance.
The sixth heat of Round 2 pitted Ward against Da Silva, Muniz and Villaran in a four-man battle for the Round 3 spot.
Ward, an ASP Veteran, put his vast experience into play and made the most of the juicy left-handers that were on offer. Locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat, the 33-year-old American posted an 8.33 on the score-board and went
on to back it up with a near-perfect 9.57-point ride, thus reaching a decisive heat-total of 17.90 points.
“I caught such a good left that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to paddle into,” said Ward. “But I won the paddle battle and it was worth it because it opened up and was really good. I was stoked with the score the judges gave me and at the end I just
stayed on the rights and tried to throw a couple of airs and just had fun until the horn sounded.”
Da Silva managed to extend his life in the competition by collecting a couple of scores in the six-point range to finish with a heat-total of 13.64 points, which served to put him in runner-up place.
Muniz scored a 4.67 and 6.00 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 10.67 points, thus having to settle for third place. Villaran put on a rather lacklustre performance to finish with a two-wave total of 10.20 points.
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