Gabriel Medina and Junior Faria advance to Saquarema Pro International round of 24
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina has managed to emerge triumphant in the sixth heat of Saquarema Pro International’s second round, round of 48, held at Itauna beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday afternoon, May 26th.
Junior Faria, also from Brazil, finished in second place and still remains in the contention for the event title. Australia’s Nic Muscroft and America’s Patrick Gudauskas finished in third and fourth place respectively, consequently finding themselves eliminated from the competition.
Mother-nature refused to cooperate with the event once again, which resulted in low tides and offshore winds prevailing at the Itauna. While the conditions made it really hard for majority of the surfers to give quality performances, there had been a handful of people who had rose up to the challenge and managed to perform exceptionally well.
Brazil’s Medina was one of the surfers who refused to give in to the conditions and utilised whatever waves were available to their maximum potential. Locking down his first wave, he threw a set of impressive manoeuvres to earn a score of 7.33. He later followed up with an equally impressive wave, scoring 7.40 this time to finish with a heat total of 14.73. None of his competitors were able to best this score and he ended up winning with a lead of 3.83, advancing to the next round of the event, round of 24.
Medina’s compatriot, Faria, did not look too comfortable at all during the heat, struggling to catch waves. However, he did manage to score a 5.17 and 5.73 off his two waves to end up with a final score of 10.90. The score put him in runner-up position and extended his life in the competition by securing a spot for him in round of 24.
Australia’s Muscroft caught a lot of waves, but failed to make them really count. He scored a 4.27 and 5.00 off his two best waves to end up in third place with a heat total of 9.27. The effort cannot be regarded as impressive, but one cannot completely put the entire blame on him completely as the conditions did not exactly favour surfers.
Gudauskas, the American surfer, managed to get a 6.00 off a wave early in the heat, but that turned out to be the only good thing for him. Failing to earn anything better than a 2.93 off his other waves; he ended the heat with a two-wave total of 8.93 for fourth position.
With the sixth heat winding up, the round of 48 has 6 more heats to go before the event moves on to the round of 24.
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