Jayke Sharp and Heitor Alves cruise to Round 2 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro – ASP Prime Event
The crowd was definitely not disappointed with the action that was delivered to them during the 11th and 12th heat of Billabong Azores Islands Pro’s Round of 96 (Round 1), that went down at Praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel, Portugal,
on Thursday, September 29.
The 11th heat saw Australia’s Jayke Sharp clinch top honours to secure his place in the Round of 48 (Round 2). Ireland’s Glenn Hall also managed to survive the heat by finishing in second place. Australia’s Heath Joske and Brazil’s Deigo Rosa
rounded out the third and fourth positions respectively, consequently getting ousted from the competition.
Brazil’s Heitor Alves walked away with victory in the 12th heat, while his compatriot, Jano Belo, took runner-up place. Both surfers advanced through to the next round. However, America’s Nathaniel Curran and Portugal’s Ruben Gonzalez finished
in third and fourth places respectively, getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
Surfing conditions at the event site had turned out to be quite challenging on Thursday, making it really hard for surfers to catch waves and get good scores off them. Their skills and experience were put to test as they battled it out for a place in the
next round.
As the 11th heat kicked-off, the 23-year-old Sharp got-off to a decent start and locked a wave early on to score 5.83 points off it. He soon got his hands on a rather juicy wave and utilised it to add an additional 7.93 points to his account,
moving to a heat-total of 13.76 points. The score kept him in the lead until the end and consequently sealed the fate of the four-man battle in his favour.
Hall did well to stay in control during the challenging 25-minute session and successfully collected a 6.60 and 6.80 off a couple of waves in the dying minutes. The heat-total of 13.40 points may not have proved enough to secure victory for him, but it was
sufficient to let him finish in second place and hence make the Round 2 cut.
Joske and Rose failed to adjust to the conditions and looked completely baffled by the challenge. The former eventually finished in third place with a heat-total of 8.80 points, while the latter rounded out fourth position with 8.26 points in total off his
two best waves. Both surfers were eliminated from the competition.
The 12th heat turned out to be a low-scoring session as well, with the four surfers desperately trying to squeeze something big out of the waves that had very little to offer. The 29-year-old Alves remained the most impressive of the lot during
the four-man battle and cruised to victory after collecting 6.17 points off his first wave and 6.33 points off his second, consequently finishing with a heat-total of 12.50 points.
Belo only managed to get to a two-wave total of 10.87 points, which included a 5.10 and 5.77-point wave, but that proved to be sufficient to confirm his place in Round 2. This simply highlighted just how difficult it was to earn good scores off the waves.
Curran finished in third place after scoring 3.93 points off his first wave and 4.03 points off his second, while local favourite, Gonzalez, finished last with a heat-total of 7.96 points. The lacklustre performance by the two surfers led to their elimination
from the contest.
For more updates on Round 1 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro, stay tuned to bettor.com.s
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