Kai Otton and Gabriel Medina emerge triumphant in Round 3 heats at Vans World Cup of Surfing
Australia’s Kai Otton and Brazil’s Gabriel Medina made the Round 4 (Round of 32) cut at the Vans World Cup of Surfing, second jewel on the 30th anniversary Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, after claiming top honours in their respective Round 3 (Round
of 64) heats that went down at Sunset Beach in Oahu, Hawaii, on Monday, December 3, 2012.
America’s Nathan Yeomans finished behind Otton in second place during the 15th heat to accompany the latter to the next round, Hawaii’s Pancho Sullivan finished third, while Brazil’s Heitor Alves had to settle for fourth place, which resulted
in their premature ejection from the contention for the event title.
While Medina secured top honours in the 16th heat, Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia finished just behind him in second place to accompany the winner into the next round. Hawaii’s Koa Smith finished third, while America’s Nathaniel Curran had to settle for
fourth place. Both the surfers had to leave the competition field as a result.
With a heft prize purse and coveted Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) ranking points on offer, the surfers had plenty of reason to continue surfing out of their skin on the latest day of the competition.
The 15th heat turned out to be a nail-biting contest, with Otton, Yeomans and Sullivan exerting pressure on one another under the very end.
Once the dust settled, however, the Australian surfer stood victorious, though just barely, with a heat-total of 11.86 points, which comprised of a 6.03 and 5.83-point ride.
Yeomans made the next round as well after securing second place due to a heat-total of 11.60 points, which included a 6.67 and 4.93-point ride.
Sullivan finished third with a heat-total of 11.40 points, while Alves had to settle for fourth place with a two-wave total of 4.26 points.
The battle for the final two spots in the fourth round ended in favour of Medina and Garcia, who managed to secure top-two positions through their heat-total of 13.76 and 13.66 points respectively.
Smith failed to make it through to the next round after registering a heat-total of 13.26 points, which put him in third place, while Curran finished fourth after failing to go any higher than a heat-total of 8.20 points.
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