Jay Thompson clinches success in Round 1 of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime at Itauna Beach
Australia’s Jay Thompson confirmed his place in the second round (Round of 48) of Quiksilver Saquarema presented by Coca-Cola after collecting a convincing victory in the 20th heat of Round 1 (Round of 96) that went down at the point-break of
Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 23.
Brazil’s Yuri Sodre was successful in extending his life in the event as well after claiming runner-up position. America’s Brett Simpson and Brazil’s David do Carmo failed to make the Round 2 cut after rounding out the third and fourth position respectively.
Day 2 of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME event of the year saw perfect swells gracing the event site of Itauna Beach. The top surfers in contention for a slice of the winning prize and ASP ranking points were expected to deliver
a handful of spectacular performances in the ideal surfing conditions that were on hand, thus promising to keep the huge crowd in attendance at Itauna Beach entertained throughout the day.
The 20th heat of Round 1 featured Thomson, Sodre, Simpson and Do Carmo in a four-man bout for the Round 2 spot.
As the battle got underway, Thompson wasted very little time in getting down to business. Paddling into a perfect spot to get hold of a juicy left-hander, the Australian surfer unleashed a flurry of exquisite manoeuvres to earn a 7.83 from the judges for
the effort. He went through a series of average scores before locking another promising wave and this managing to score a 7.00 off it, thus moving to a heat-total of 14.83 points. The score did not receive any significant threat from any of his rivals and
thus allowed him to walk away with a comfortable win.
Sodre was not able to catch too many waves during the course of the heat, but did manage to earn a couple of scores in the six-point range to finish with a heat-total of 13.26 points, which proved sufficient to put him in runner-up place and thus confirm
his place in the next round.
Simpson barely missed out on making the Round 2 cut as he collected a 7.10 and 6.13 off his best-two waves to finish just 0.03 points behind Sodre’s score. Unfortunately for him, there were no second chances and thus he found himself eliminated from the
event.
Do Carmo finished in fourth place after putting on an ordinary performance for a heat-total of 11.10 points, which comprised of a 5.50 and 5.60-point wave. He was removed from the contention for the event title as well.
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