Kieren Perrow and Miguel Pupo bounce back in Round 2 at Billabong Pro Tahiti
Australia’s Kieren Perrow and Brazil’s Miguel Pupo qualified for the third round at the latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, Billabong Pro Tahiti, after clinching the win in their respective Round 2
heats that took place at the main site of Teahupo’o in Taiarapu, Tahiti, on Friday, August 17.
Perrow prevailed over Portugal’s Tiago Pires in the seventh heat to secure his spot in the next round while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
Australia’s Yadin Nicol failed to keep Pupo from clinching the win in the eighth heat, consequently getting eliminated from the competition while sending the latter into the next round.
The second day of the competition saw throbbing three-to-four foot waves greeting the elite ASP surfers, presenting them with plenty of potent scoring opportunities to put their surfing prowess on display while competing for an extension of their life in
the event.
Pitted against Pires in the seventh heat, Perrow had his work clearly cut out for him. Both the surfers had failed to impress on the opening day of the competition, but were expected to put on a better show now that they found themselves pushed to the edge.
The 35-year-old Perrow went down to work right from the word go and locked his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post an 8.00 on the score-board. After going through a series of average scores, he added an additional 8.60 points to
his account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 16.60 points.
Pires responded with a two-wave total of 10.00 points, which comprised of a 5.83 and 4.17-point ride. The 6.60-point deficit forced him to surrender victory to his rival.
The eighth heat saw Pupo and Nicol treat the crowd to an exciting show as they unloaded some of their best tricks in high-performance waves to try and extend their lives in the competition.
Pupo got off to an excellent start, earning a 9.50 off his first business-wave and backed it up with an additional 9.47 many waves later to finish with a heat-total of 18.97 points.
Nicol came up with an impressive performance, but just was not able to go all the way after concluding the heat with a two-wave total of 16.97 points, which comprised of a 8.70 and 8.27-point rides.
“The waves were really fun for our heat,” Pupo said. “The waves are stop and go out there. Some heats have waves and some do not. We were happy to have a lot of waves in our heat. This is my first time competing at Teahupo’o so I am just trying to get as
many waves as I can and build my experience.”
Successfully surviving his Round 2 heat sent Pupo into the third round where he was to face Australia’s Owen Wright.
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