Hiroto Arai and Carl Wright remain solid in Round 2 of Championship Moves Open
Japan’s Hiroto Arai and Australia’s Carl Wright emerged triumphant in the final-two heats of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 1-Star Championship Moves Open’s Round 2 (Round of 32) that went down at the Jan Juc beach in Victoria, Australia, on
Saturday, January 7.
The shifting of the competition from Bells Beach to Jan Juc was working out well as it turned out to be another day of decent surfing conditions, with three-foot waves and light on-shore winds.
The sole Japanese surfer in competition field, Arai, found himself pitted against Australia’s Soli Bailey, Asher Wales and Cahill Bell-Warren in a four-man battle for the Round 3 (Round of 16) spot.
As the battle got underway, Arai wasted no time in getting down to business and locked a wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 6.25 on the score-board. After going through a series of waves, he collected yet another 6.25-point wave to finish
with a heat-total of 12.50 points. The score served to earn him victory and carry him into the next round.
Bailey, who had gotten an ideal result during Round 1, managed to survive yet another heat by securing runner-up place with a heat-total of 10.15 points, which comprised of a 5.25 and 4.90-point wave.
Wales and Bell-Warren evidently struggled to adjust to the conditions at hand and therefore failed to collect decent scores. Wales finished with a heat-total of 8.25 points, whereas the latter rounded out fourth place with 6.70 points. As a result, both
the surfers got eliminated from the competition.
The final heat of Round 2 saw Wright take on his compatriots Tim Macdonald, Mitch Baker and Yukio Ogawa.
As the heat kicked off, Wright got off to a solid start with a 7.50-point wave, taking an early advantage over his competitors. In the dying minutes of the battle, he added an additional 7.10 points to his account to finish with a two-wave total of 14.60
points, which eventually sealed the fate of the contest in his favour and sent him through into the next round.
Macdonald got a decent start, earning 5.25 points off a wave in the early minutes of the heat. He went on to add an 8.00 to his account to take his two-wave total to 13.25 points. However, he got called for interference in the final minutes of the battle.
The resulting penalty reduced his heat-total to 10.63 points. However, he successfully held on to the runner-up position to advance through into Round 3.
Baker and Ogawa got eliminated after rounding out the bottom-two positions. Baker scored a total of 10.10 points off his best-two waves, whereas Ogawa finished with a two-wave total of 5.55 points, which included an interference penalty.
With the conclusion of Round 2, the Championship Moves Open moved on to the third round to determine the quarter-finalists.
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