Junior Faria out while Lincoln Taylor qualifies for Saquarema Surf Pro International quarter-finals
Australia’s Lincoln Taylor defeated Brazil’s Junior Faria in the second heat of the round of 12 at Saquarema Surf Pro International, which went down on Monday, May 30th, at the beach-break of Itauna in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
With the latest win, the Australian surfer qualified for the quarter-finals, while the local favourite, Faria, no longer remains in the contention for the event title.
Itauna beach enjoys a reputation of being one of the best surfing spots in the world. Unfortunately, the site has completely failed to live up to its name over the last few days, presenting the surfers with new challenging conditions everyday and making
the event organisers eager to see the contest wrap up before the conditions get even worse.
The surfing conditions on Monday were no different either in terms of difficulty. There were 9-10 foot stormy waves breaking at the beach, accompanied by strong offshore winds and overcast weather conditions. Apparently, mother-nature had no intention of
cooperating with the event for even a single day.
With no other choice, Taylor and Faria entered the sea to get their showdown underway. Both the surfers had bested some extremely talented surfers to reach this far and were determined to get to the next round.
Taylor got off to a flying start, catching the first wave to thrown down a set of sensational tricks cleanly and earning himself 7.33 points for the effort. However, he struggled to find another good wave and eventually had to settle for a 3.90 wave in the
late stages of the heat. The heat total of 11.23 points did not seem like it would be enough to carry him off to victory.
It took Faria almost half the heat to lock his first good wave, scoring 6.33 off it. With a decent first wave, he just needed a 4.91 to seal his status as the winner. Unfortunately for him and the local crowd that supported him, his second wave only earned
him a score of 4.27, making him narrowly miss out on victory due to a deficit of 0.63 points.
Taylor managed to survive yet another round and will now compete in the quarter-finals of the Saquarema Surf Pro International, the fourth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year. The event is presented by Coca Cola and Oakley.
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