Halley Batista and Marco Fernandez prevail in Round 2 at San Miguel Pro Zarautz
Brazil’s Halley Batista and his fellow countryperson Marco Fernandez qualified for Round 3 (Round of 48) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz after emerging triumphant in their respective Round 2 (Round of 96) heats
that took place at the primary event site of Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Thursday, August 30.
Brazil’s Tomas Hermes accompanied his compatriot Batista into the next round after securing runner-up place in the 15th heat, whereas South Africa’s Dale Staples and France’s Adrien Valero got eliminated from the competition after finishing in
third and fourth place respectively.
The 16th heat saw Argentina’s Marcelo Rodriguez successfully make it through into the next round after finishing behind Fernandez in runner-up place. Brazil’s Jean Da Silva and his fellow compatriot Yuri Sodre failed to make the Round 3 cut after
rounding out the bottom-two position.
The latest day of the competition saw three-to-four foot waves breaking at the primary event site, offering plenty of juice for the surfers to put their exquisite surfing abilities on display as they battled it out for survival in four-man heats.
Pitted against Hermes, Staples and Valero in the 15th heat, Batista sure had his work cut out. However, the Brazilian surfer rose up to the challenge and managed to put on an impressive show, collecting a couple of scores in the six-point range
along the way to finish with a decisive heat-total of 13.16 points.
Hermes successfully extended his life in the event as well after finishing with a two-wave total of 12.60 points, which comprised of a 4.93 and 7.67-point ride.
Staples finished in third place with a heat-total of 8.33 points, while Valero concluded the heat with a two-wave total of 5.23 points to sit in last place.
The 16th heat saw Fernandez walk away with a convincing victory. The Brazilian surfer managed to extract a 6.57 off his first business-wave and immediately backed it up with an impressive 8.27-point ride, thus finishing with a heat-total of 14.84
points.
Rodriguez joined him in the next round after securing runner-up place through a heat-total of 11.23 points, which included a 6.80 and 4.43-point wave.
Da Silva and Sodre finished with a heat-total of 10.60 and 9.33 points respectively, which just was not good enough to carry them into the next round.
Tags: