Jordy Smith clinches Round 1 victory at Quiksilver Pro France – 2011 ASP World Tour
The crowd was in for some surfing action as South Africa’s Jordy Smith, France’s Marc Lacomare and Australia’s Kieren Perrow squared off in the fifth heat of Quiksilver Pro France’s Round 1 that went down at the iconic beach-break of La Graviere in France
on Wednesday, October 5.
The battle for top honours turned out to be quite intense and came down to the last minute, where an extra effort by Smith allowed him to edge past his French rival to secure victory and advance directly into Round 3. Lacomare was forced to settle for second
place, while Perrow rounded out the third place. Both the surfers were sent to Round 2 after their unsuccessful Round 1 result.
The 23-year-old Smith had remained in the lime-light during the first-half of the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour due to his spectacular performances. Comfortably placed in the Top-3 on the ASP World Title Ranking table, things
had been going smoothly for the South African until he sustained a rib injury during Billabong Pro Tahiti, the fifth stop of the elite tour. The injury forced him to miss the next two events but he returned to action at La Graviere to continue his campaign
for the ASP World Title.
The shifty six-to-seven foot waves offered by the primary event site continued to trouble the surfers during their hunt for good scores. Despite being heavily talented and experienced, the three surfers in the fifth heat had a real tough time out in the
middle.
The heat got off to a really slow start as the waves that appeared lacked juice and offered very little for the surfers to work with. After a long and determined hunt, Smith managed to break free of the shackles by scoring a 5.20 off a wave. Lacomare almost
immediately rose to the occasion and posted a 5.83 on the score-board to take the lead.
The Frenchman added another 4.00 points to his account, moving to a heat-total of 9.83 points and seemed to be heading towards victory. However, Smith caught a wave in the dying minutes of the heat to collect 4.90 points off it and moved to a decisive heat-total
of 10.10 points.
The Round 1 victory was just the sort of thing that Smith needed to lift his spirits after missing out on the previous two elite tour events. During his post-heat interview, the South African said, “It's so good to be back. I'm not 100% at the moment – about
75%. It still hurts to lie down on my board and paddle, but it's time for me to be back in the water. I want to be here and I'm happy to have come away with a win in my first heat back.”
The third competitor in the fifth heat, Perrow, failed to make his presence felt due to an extremely disappointing performance. The lacklustre effort caused him to settle for third place after finishing with a heat-total of 2.93 points, which included a
0.93 and 2.00-point wave.
For more updates on Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro France, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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