Gabriel Medina defeats Jonathan Gonzalez to qualify for Quiksilver Saquarema Prime
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina got the better of Venezuela’s Jonathan Gonzalez in the sixth heat of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round 5 (Round of 16) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, May 26.
With his win in the fifth round, Medina successfully confirmed his place in the Quarter-finals, whereas the competition came to a premature end for his rival.
The fifth day of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime presented by Coca-Cola had promised a lot of intense action and adrenaline-pumping battles throughout the day due to the surfing conditions on hand. The sunny skies and three-to-five foot waves gracing the event
site seemed just perfect to host the showdowns between the top surfing talents from all corners of the world. The strong motivation to perform well in order to stay alive in the contention for the event title, the prize money and coveted Association of Surfing
Professionals (ASP) ranking points that were on offer resulted in a series of memorable battles.
With the latest round leading to the Quarter-finals, the intensity in the heats was even higher. The huge crowd in attendance at Itauna Beach anticipated the battles to go down to the wire and were definitely not disappointed by what they got to witness
throughout the day.
The sixth heat of Round 5 saw Medina and Gonzalez take each other on in a man-on-man battle for the Quarter-final spot.
As the battle got underway, both the surfers got off to a pretty lacklustre start, clearly struggling to adapt to the wave-starved conditions.
Medina however managed to eventually break free of the shackles in the final minutes of the heat, locking his first business-wave to post a 4.17 on the score-board. In the dying minutes of the heat, the ASP World Tour rookie caught a juicy left-hander to
unload a series of powerful turns and earning an 8.93 for the effort to consequently finish with a heat-total of 13.10 points.
Gonzalez only managed to lock four waves during the course of the heat, earning a 5.83 off both his top-waves to finish with a heat-total of 11.66 points. The lacklustre effort kept him 1.44 points short of the required score, thus eliminating him from the
competition.
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