Gabriel Medina and Thiago Camarao triumph in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 continued at the beach-break of Ribera D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal, with the fourth and fifth heat of Round 1 (round of 96) on Tuesday, June 14th.
The fourth heat saw Brazil’s Gabriel Medina clinch the top honours to secure a place in the next round. His compatriot, Jihad Khodr, also managed to stay alive in the competition by grabbing the second position. Japan’s Yujiro Tsuji and America’s Nathan
Yeomans finished in third and fourth positions respectively, getting ejected from the tournament as a result.
The fifth heat saw Brazil’s Thiago Camarao walk away with top honours, while America’s Patrick Gudauskas rounded out the runner-up position to extend his life in the competition as well. Brazil’s Pablo Paulino and Reunion’s Hugo Savalli finished in third
and fourth positions respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the event.
After an amazing performance at the Super Surf International, held in Brazil last month, Medina was expected to come on strongly in the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event as well. He definitely lived up to the expectations, scoring
an impressive 7.10 and 8.00 off his two waves in the final minutes of the heat to walk away with a convincing victory.
Talking to the media after the heat, the 17-year-old Medina said, “I feel good and it is good to get through that heat. With Jihad (Khodr) with me in the same heat was fun and I have learnt things off him because he was on the World Tour for a long time.
I feel confident at the moment but I don't think too much about qualifying right now.”
Khodr held his own in the demanding surfing conditions as well and ended up giving a decent performance during the heat. He scored 6.67 points off his first wave and later followed it up with a 6.10-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.77 points.
Tsuji and Yeomans were unable to read the conditions properly, which resulted in weak performances. While the Japanese surfer scored 5.20 and 4.63 points off his two waves to clinch the third place, the American finished at the bottom after earning a two-wave
total of 9.60 points.
In the fifth heat, Camarao surfed impressively to secure the top position. Looking good since the beginning, he eventually scored 7.50 points off his first wave, later adding an even more impressive 7.60 points to his account to finish with a heat-total
of 15.10 points.
Gaudauskas’s performance was not too shaky either, catching a couple of waves for 5.83 and 8.50 points to keep himself alive in the tournament for now.
Paulino finished with a two-wave score of 11.24 to secure the third position, while Savalli secured 4.00 and 3.60 points off his two waves to finish in fourth place with an overall score of 7.60. Both the surfers were removed from the race for the event
title.
For more updates on the round of 96 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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