Keanu Asing overcomes Wiggolly Dantas to move into Quiksilver Saquarema Prime – Surfing News
Hawaii’s Keanu Asing barely edged past Brazil’s Wiggolly Dantas in the final minutes to claim victory in the seventh heat of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round 5 (Round of 16) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, May 26.
The successful result for Asing in the fifth round served to carry Asing into the Quarter-finals, whereas Dantas found himself eliminated from the race for the competition title.
There was plenty of action in store for the surfing fans at the fourth event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME event. With the waves lying somewhere in the three-to-five foot range on the fifth day of the competition, there were plenty of potent scoring opportunities for the world’s best surfers still alive in contention for the event title to put their exquisite performances on display.
The $US 40,000 prize money for the winner of the competition, along with up to 6,500 ASP ranking points, was just the sort of motivation that the surfers needed to push themselves really hard during the course of the battles, determined to stay alive in the race for the eventual win.
The seventh heat of Round 5 saw Asing and Dantas take each other on a man-on-man battle for a place in the Quarter-final.
As the battle got underway, Dantas got off to a promising start. With the local knowledge of the waves at his disposal, the Brazilian surfer moved in position to catch a juicy wave, which he utilised to pull off a series of stylish moves, thus posting a 6.10 points on the score-board. He kept the hunt going and ended up adding an additional 6.53 points to his account to move to a heat-total of 12.63 points.
Asing, on the other hand, did not get off to the most confident of starts. However, he gradually built his momentum to eventually find a 5.77-point ride. Still trailing behind his rival in the final minutes, the Hawaiian surfer managed to score a 6.90 off his second business-wave in the final minutes of the heat to finish with a heat-total of 12.67 points, thus emerging triumphant and consequently moving into the Quarter-finals.
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