John John Florence and Jeremy Flores advance to Round 4 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The fifth and sixth heat of Quiksilver Pro Portugal’s round of 24 (Round 3) went down at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal, on Thursday, June 16th.
Hawaii’s John John Florence managed to prevail over South Africa’s Brandon Jackson in the fifth heat to walk away with top honours and remove his rival from the event title race.
France’s Jeremy Flores won the sixth heat after surviving an intense battle with Brazil’s Andre Silva, eventually pushing him out of the competition.
Despite the challenging low tides and strong windy conditions prevailing at the main event site, Florence managed to come up with an exceptional performance to down his rival.
As the heat kicked off, both the surfers began their hunt for a fighting score. Florence eventually locked a really good wave in the middle stages of the heat to earn a score of 7.60 points and put pressure on his rival. Jackson, however, managed to reduce
the lead by collecting 6.67 points from his first wave. He soon added another 7.20 points to his account to turn the tables and put the Hawaiian under pressure by reaching a heat-total of 13.87 points.
In the final minutes of the heat, Florence caught another good wave to throw down a set of impressive turns and flips to earn 8.67 points for the effort and getting to a two-wave total of 16.27 points. The score sealed the fate of the heat, sending Florence
to the round of 12, while eliminating Jackson from the title contention.
The next heat turned out to be a real nail-biter as both Flores and Silva took each other on in tough surfing conditions. Both the surfers look uncomfortable in the low tides and strong winds blowing at the beach. Managing to stay at par with each other’s
performances, both the surfers kept on hunting for a good score in order to put the other under pressure.
Flores opened his account with a score of 5.50 from his first wave. However, Silva immediately got past him by putting a 6.17 on the scoreboard. To make matters worse for the French, the Brazilian added an additional 5.37 points to reach a heat-total of
11.54 points, which seemed threatening under the tough conditions.
Flores, however, managed to rise up to the challenge and locked a wave to score 6.43 points off it to reach a two-wave total of 11.93 points and clinch victory, eliminating his rival from the competition as a result.
For more updates on Round 3 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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