Kolohe Andino and Brian Toth remain strong in Round 2 of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro – Surfing News
America’s Kolohe Andino and Puerto Rico’s Brian Toth advanced through into the third round (no-loser Round of 24) of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro after emerging triumphant in their respective Round 2 (Round of 48) heats that went down at Margaret River
in Australia on Wednesday, March 21.
Australia’s Mick Fanning and his fellow countryman Kai Otton also made the Round 3 cut after finishing in runner-up place in the 11th and 12th heat respectively.
Top surfers from around the world continued their pursuit of the coveted winner’s prize and crucial Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) rating points at the second ASP Primate rated event of the year. The surfing conditions were pretty decent, giving
surfers a handful of opportunities to post big scores on the scoreboard.
The 11th heat turned out to be quite an interesting battle as the former two-time ASP World Champion Fanning and the young Californian sensation Andino battled it out for top honours in what was actually a four-man battle.
The Australian surfer got off to a pretty solid start, posting a 7.17 on the scoreboard off his first business-wave and soon backed it up with a 5.87-point wave to get to a heat-total of 13.04 points.
Andino rose to meet the challenge head on and managed to edge past Fanning by posting a 5.50 and an 8.57 on the score-board to finish with a heat-total of 14.07 points.
Australia’s Chris Friend and Peru’s Gabriel Villaran were forced out of contention for the event title after finishing with a heat-total of 9.87 and 5.16 points respectively.
The next heat featured and exciting battle between Toth and Otton as both the surfers put on a determined performance to reach out for victory.
The Puerto Rican surfer drew first blood with an 8.00 point wave to get an early lead, though he was forced to wait for his second business-wave that eventually came in the end. Scoring a 5.53 off the latter wave, he finished with a heat-total of 13.53 points.
Otton got off to a modest start, but eventually stepped up to score a 7.67 off his first business-wave late in the heat. He needed another good score to take the win, but only managed to add an additional 5.23 points to his account, consequently finishing
with a heat-total of 12.90 points. The 0.63-point deficit forced him to concede victory to Toth in the end.
South Africa’s Dale Staples and Brazil’s Caio Ibelli found the competition coming to a premature end for them after rounding out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 10.34 and 9.67 points respectively.
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