Gabriel Medina and Kieren Perrow survive Round 3 at Billabong Pro Tahiti
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Australia’s Kieren Perrow advanced to Round 4 at Billabong Pro Tahiti, the latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after walking away with top honours from their respective Round
3 heats that went down at the primary event site at Teahupo’o in Taiarapu, Tahiti, on Sunday, August 26.
Medina got a comprehensive victory over his fellow countryperson Alejo Muniz to secure his spot in the fourth round while bringing the competition to a premature end for his rival.
The 12th heat saw Perrow get the better of Brazilian powerhouse Adriano de Souza to qualify for the next round of the competition while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
With rapidly improving three-to-five foot waves breaking at the main event site, the elite ASP surfers were expected to treat the crowd in attendance as well as the global audience catching the action live through webcast to a series of exquisite performances.
The 11th heat pitted Medina against his compatriot Muniz in a one-on-one battle for the quarter-final spot without having to go through the fifth round. Both the surfers had been looking good since day 1 of the competition and were expected to
put on an interesting show.
As the battle got underway, Medina wasted very little time to stamp his authority in the heat. He locked his first business-wave to unload a flurry of powerful turns, earning an 8.93 for the effort. Adding an additional 4.67 points to his account, he finished
with a two-wave total of 13.60 points.
Muniz failed to offer any sort of challenge to his rival throughout the course of the bout. Managing to earn a couple of scores in the two-point range off his best-two waves, he finished with a heat-total of 4.73 points, which forced him to concede victory
to his rival.
The 12th heat saw Perrow squaring-off with De Souza in a battle for survival. The Australian surfer got down to business right from the word go and collected a couple of impressive waves to eventually register a two-wave total of 16.87 points.
De Souza was unable to come up with an adequate response to his rival’s powerful performance. While the determination and desperation were apparent in his hunt for a couple of big scores, he was only able to reach a two-wave total of 10.67 points, consequently
conceding victory to his rival.
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