Last-minute effort carries Willian Cardoso to victory in Round 1 of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime
Brazil’s Willian Cardoso advanced to the second round (Round of 48) of the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime presented by Coca-Cola following a last-minute come-from behind victory in the 18th heat of Round 1 (Round of 96) that went down at the point-break
of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 23.
Basque Country’s Aritz Aranburu accompanied Cardoso into the next round of the competition after finishing in second place. Brazil’s Leandro Bastos finished third, whereas Australia’s Mitch Crews had to settle for fourth place. Both the surfers were consequently
added to the elimination list.
The second day of the fourth event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME calendar saw sunny skies and promising surfing conditions prevailing at the event site, causing the fans to anticipate yet another heavy dose of thrilling action.
The intensity in the battles was expected to be high as the Round 1 heats continued to cut off heads and thus removing surfers from the contention for a slice of the $US 250,000 prize purse and ASP ranking points that waited at the end along with the coveted
event title.
The morning session of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime kicked-off with Cardoso taking on Aranburu, Bastos and Crews in the 18th heat of Round 1.
Putting his local knowledge of the conditions at Itauna Beach to use, Cardoso selected a good position to wait for the sea to fire juicy waves in his direction. The wait turned out to be a little long, but proved to be worth it. Catching his first business-wave
halfway through the heat, the Brazilian surfer posted a 7.17 on the score-board. Patiently waiting for another potent scoring opportunity, Cardoso slid to second place, but barely got the lead back through a 7.57-point wave in the dying minutes of the heat
to finish with a heat-total of 14.74 points.
Scoring a heat-total of 13.77 points, Aranburu had nearly walked away victorious after sitting in the lead with only a couple of minutes left in the heat. However, the lead slipped out of his hands in the final minutes of the heat, leaving him to settle
for runner-up place.
Bastos finished in third place after collecting a couple of scores in the six-point range for a heat-total of 13.06 points, while a two-wave total of 12.07 points placed Crews in fourth place. Failing to finish the heat in top-two, both the surfers found
themselves eliminated from the latest ASP PRIME event.
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