Gabriel Medina defeats John John Florence in Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 semi-final
The first semi-final of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 went down at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal, on Saturday, June 18th.
The contest turned out to be quite a one-man show, with Brazil’s Gabriel Medina getting a convincing victory over Hawaii’s John John Florence to advance to the final stage of the competition.
The surfing conditions at the primary event site had turned out to be a little demanding in the morning, but improved considerably as the day progressed. While the onshore winds continued to blow, the surfers breathed a sigh of relief to see the tides rise
to four-to-five feet.
The first semi-final pitted Medina against Florence in a battle for a place in the finals. Both surfers had overcome a talented field of surfers over the last few days to reach this stage, which meant that neither of them had any serious issues with their
form.
While it was difficult to pick a favourite to win the contest with certainty, the odds did tilt in favour of Medina. Since the start of the competition, he was being considered among the strongest contenders for the event title and he surely lived up to
the expectations.
The 31-year-old had already shown his potential and surfing prowess during the last Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event, Super Surf International, which went down at Imbituba in Santa Catarina, Brazil, in the first week of June. He had
walked away victorious from that event and the confidence gained from that victory showed in his surfing in the latest ASP Prime event.
As the semi-final kicked off, Medina instantly asserted his excellent form and dominance by locking a wave to throw down a combination of impressive manoeuvres and earning 8.00 points for the effort. He collected an outstanding second-wave score of 9.00
in the later stages of the heat to finish with a heat-total of 17.00 points.
Such an amazing score at such a crucial stage of the competition would have made even the best in the sport sweat. Even though Florence had come up with amazing performances over the last few days, he was clearly not ready to face such a tough challenge.
Not only did the Hawaiian struggle to catch waves throughout the 30-minute heat, he failed to make the most of the ones that he actually did lock. Scoring a 6.50 and 7.17 off his two best waves, he finished with a heat-total of 13.67 points, surrendering
victory to his Brazilian rival.
With his winning streak in the competition intact, Medina made his way into the final to face the final obstacle that separated him from the title.
For updates on the second semi-final of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
Tags: