Gabriel Medina and John John Florence advance to Quiksilver Pro Portugal semi-finals
After four days of adrenaline-pumping surfing contests between some of the most talented surfers from around the globe, the latest edition of Quiksilver Pro Portugal reached its final day on Saturday, June 18th. The event was taking place at Ribeira
D'Ilhas beach in Ericeira, Portugal.
The final day kicked off with the first quarter-final, which saw Brazil’s Gabriel Medina walk away with top honours after downing France’s Jeremy Flores to make his way into the semi-finals.
Hawaii’s John John Florence won the second quarter-final, bringing America’s Patrick Gudauskas’ title pursuit to a premature end, and to reserve a place for himself in the next stage of the competition.
While low tides and strong onshore winds prevailed at the primary event site, the four-to-five foot waves looked very promising.
Before the beginning of the first quarter-final, it was really hard to really place the bet on either Medina or Flores, considering their excellent form over the last few days. Even as their latest heat started, both surfers managed to stay at par with each
other.
Medina eventually clinched the lead by catching a really good wave to land a string of impressive manoeuvres and earning 8.50 points for the effort. He soon followed it up with a near-perfect score of 9.87 out of possible 10, to finish with an amazing heat-total
of 18.37 points, leaving his rival under a great deal of pressure.
Flores failed to come up with a substantial response and surrendered victory after scoring a 6.33 and 6.00 off his two best waves. This, consequently, brought him to the end of the road, while sending Medina one step closer to the title.
In the second quarter-final, Florence completely dominated Gudauskas during the 30-minute heat to clinch the win. The American had looked quite intimidating in the previous rounds, but the Hawaiian actually made him look average.
As the battle commenced, Gudauskas took an early lead by scoring 6.50 points off a wave. However, Florence got past him almost half-way through the heat by earning an incredible 9.70 to reverse the situation and place the American under pressure.
Not quite finished yet, the Hawaiian soon added an additional 8.33 points to his account to reach a heat-total of 18.03, sealing the fate of the heat. Even a perfect 10 would not have allowed Gudauskas to get ahead of him now.
Earning 5.93 points off his second-best wave, the American finished with a two-wave total of 12.43 points. As a result, he was eliminated from the competition, while Florence advanced to the semi-finals.
For more updates on the Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 quarter-finals, stay tuned to bettor.com
Tags: