Gabriel Medina downs Owen Wright to enter Quiksilver Pro France quarter-finals
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina got the better of Australia’s Owen Wright during the third heat of Quiksilver Pro France’s Round 5, taking place at the primary event site of La Graviere in Hossegor, France, on Thursday, October 4, to advance through into the quarter-finals
while eliminating the latter from the contention for the event title.
It turned out to be a pretty intense battle, with both the surfers showing immense amount of determination to extend their life in the competition.
The pulsing six foot waves gracing the primary event site on the latest day of the competition promised a heavy dose of enthralling action as the elite Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) surfers got set to take each other on in a man-on-man battle
for survival.
After getting off to a rather ordinary start, Medina had managed to build momentum after a couple of wins, though it ended up breaking as he faltered during his Round 4 heat.
As a result, he found himself pitted against Wright, who was also unable to make it through the fourth round successfully, to battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals.
Both the surfers knew just how crucial a victory at this point was to their ASP World Championship Tour rankings since there were only a few events away from the conclusion of the latest season of the elite tour.
As the heat kicked-off, Wright quickly got in position to catch a juicy peak, which he utilised to unload a series of stylish manoeuvres, consequently earning an 8.00 for the effort.
He immediately followed it up with a 3.00-point ride to move to a heat-total of 11.00 points.
Medina got off to a slow start, struggling a little to find his rhythm. However, he managed to recover just in time to find a 5.33-point ride and went on to back it up with another 7.27-point ride, thus reaching a heat-total of 12.60 points.
The score held up until the end to see the Brazilian young gun into the next stage of the competition, giving him a solid opportunity to improve his overall standings.
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