Gabriel Medina and Adriano de Souza advance to quarter-finals at Nike US Open of Surfing
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and his compatriot Adriano de Souza confirmed their spot in the quarter-finals at the Nike US Open of Surfing, the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the season, after claiming victory in their respective
Round 8 (Round of 16) heats that went down at Huntington Beach in California, America, on Saturday, August 4.
Medina got the better of Hawaii’s Granger Larsen in the fifth heat of Round 8 to advance to the next stage of the competition while his competitor from the race for the event title.
America’s Nat Young failed to keep De Souza from walking away with the win in the sixth heat while getting eliminated from the competition himself.
The two-to-four foot waves breaking at the primary event site offered plenty of potent scoring opportunities for the top surfers from around the globe to avail while competing for survival in the latest ASP Prime event.
The fifth heat pitted Medina and Larsen in a one-on-one battle for the quarter-final spot. Both the surfers had been exhibiting a formidable form over the last few days and thus the battle was expected to be real intense.
However, the affair turned out to be pretty one-sided as the Brazilian surfer asserted his dominance over his Hawaiian rival with a 7.67 off his first business-wave and backed it up with an 8.23-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 15.90 points.
Larsen only managed to secure a 4.73 off his first business-wave and added an additional 5.20-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 9.93 points.
The sixth heat saw De Souza and Young battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals. The 25-year-old Brazilian took control of the heat with a 7.57 off his first business-wave and went on to cement his dominating position with an 8.17-point ride in the
final minutes of the battle, thus finishing with a heat-total of 15.74 points.
Young scored a 6.67 off his first business-wave and 4.73 off his second business-wave to finish with a heat-total of 11.40 points. The effort proved insufficient and thus forced the American talent to taste defeat.
“It will be nice, I haven’t had a heat against Gabriel (Medina) before and I’m looking forward to it,” de Souza said after the heat. “Gabriel is such a good surfer in all conditions, he got second in Fiji and he’s obviously good out here. He’s a top five
talent and it looks like the waves will increase tomorrow. We’ll see what the conditions are like tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.”
The thrilling surfing action continued at Huntington Beach with the remaining heats of Round 8 at Nike US Open of Surfing.
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