Kieren Perrow stuns Gabriel Medina in fourth Quarter-final of 2011 Billabong Pipe Masters
Australia’s Kieren Perrow squared off with Brazil’s Gabriel Medina in the fourth Quarter-final of 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour’s and Vans Triple Crown of Surfing’s final stop, Billabong Pipe Masters, which went down on Saturday,
December 10, at Banzai Pipeline on the famed North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
The battle turned out to be pretty one-sided as Perrow completely stole the show with his superb performance to advance through into the Semi-final while disposing of Medina in the process.
The 17-year-old Medina had stepped onto the ASP World Tour stage following the September cut. Despite being one of the youngest competitors on the ASP Dream Tour, the Brazilian prodigy was proving to be a force to be reckoned with and had already earned
the boasting rights for defeating the greatest surfer in history, America’s Kelly Slater, not once but twice in the last three months, along with collecting two elite tour victories.
Medina had continued to look threatening at Banzai Pipeline and smoothly made it through the initial rounds of the competition to enter the Quarter-finals. However, things were bound to get bumpier as he found himself pitted against Perrow, another surfer
who had been in an amazing form over the last few days.
As the fourth Quarter-final got underway, the 34-year-old Perrow wasted no time in getting down to business and asserted his dominance over his competitor with an outstanding 9.00-point wave. He kept the charge going and soon treated the crowd and judges
to yet another dose of epic stunts, this time earning an 8.23 for the effort. The two waves put him in a dominant position with a heat-total of 17.23 points.
Medina had his work cut out for him as the onslaught by his Australian rival had left him looking at a pretty intimidating target to beat. The conditions were not that favourable either regardless of how friendly Perrow had made them seem, which further
added to the challenge.
The Brazilian managed to catch his first wave a few minutes past the half-way stage of the heat and did well to squeeze an 8.63 off it, keeping the battle very much alive. However, he failed to follow it up with another excellent effort and merely added
an additional 0.63 points to his account, consequently finishing with a heat-total of 9.26 points. As a result, he was forced to surrender victory to Perrow, sending the latter into the Semi-finals where he was to face Tahiti’s Michel Bourez for the title-shot.
For updates on the 2011 Billabong Pipe Masters Semi-finals, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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