Kai Otton and Caio Ibelli prevail in Round 1 of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro – Surfing News
Australia’s Kai Otton and Brazil’s Caio Ibelli clinched top honours in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro that continued at Margaret River in Australia on Tuesday, March 20.
Both Otton and Ibelli advanced through into the second round (Round of 48) following their success in the first round. Peru’s Gabriel Villaran and Australia’s Chris Friend made their way into the second round as well after securing first runner-up position in the 23rd and 24th heat respectively.
The huge six-to-eight foot waves breaking at the primary event site on day 2 of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event offered the top surfers from around the world plenty of opportunity to unleash their technical tricks and style. The crowd expected the battles to be nothing short of thrilling as the pursuit for the coveted event title and prize money continued.
Pitted against Villaran, America’s Tanner Gudauskas and Reunion Island’s Adrien Toyon, Otton put on a superb performance during the 23rd round. The Australian talent got off to an excellent start by scoring an 8.00 off his first business-wave and soon followed it up with a 7.67-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 15.67 points.
Villaran finished well behind Otton in runner-up place after earning a couple of scores in the five-point range for a heat-total of 11.37 points.
Gudauskas barely missed out on the second position after finishing with a heat-total of 11.20 points, while Toyon rounded out fourth position after scoring a heat-total of 7.48 points, which included a penalty for getting called for interference. Both the surfers got eliminated from the competition due to their bottom-two finish.
The final heat of Round 1 saw Ibelli square off with Friend, France’s Romain Cloitre and Hawaii’s Mason Ho.
The Brazilian surfer locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 6.67 on the score-board and soon backed it up with a 5.77-point wave for a heat-total of 12.44 points.
Despite the local knowledge of the waves, Friend was unable to challenge his rival’s score successfully and consequently had to settle for runner-up place with a two-wave total of 11.74 points.
Cloitre and Ho rounded out the bottom-two positions after finishing with a heat-total of 8.77 and 8.34 points respectively. As a result, both the surfers got removed from the contention for the event-title.
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