Leigh Sedley and Hank Gaskell head into Round 5 at ASP 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco
Australia’s Leigh Sedley and Hawaii’s Hank Gaskell managed to successfully secure their spot in the fifth round (Round of 16) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco after emerging triumphant in their respective
Round 4 (Round of 32) heats that went down at the main event site of Playa Revolcadero in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday, July 21.
Accompany the two surfers into the next round were Peru’s Miguel Tudela and America’s Shane Beschen, who clinched runner-up position in their respective heats to extend their life in the contention for the event title.
The competition field continued to narrow down with each completed heat, consequently leaving behind the in-form surfers to compete for the event title. The four-to-six foot waves breaking at the primary event site appeared pretty promising, but the off-shore
conditions made it tough for the surfers to collect big scores.
Pitted against Tudela, America’s Ricky Whitlock and his compatriot Chris Tucker in the seventh heat, Sedley had his work clearly cut out for him. However, the Australian surfer managed to rise up to the challenge and managed to get hold of a couple of decent
scores to reach a heat-total of 10.90 points. The score held up until the end to see him through into the next round of the competition.
Tudela successfully made the Round 5 cut as well after putting on a determined performance to get to a heat-total of 8.04 points, which proved sufficient to put him in runner-up place.
Whitlock finished in third place with a heat-total of 6.50 points, while Tucker rounded out the bottom-position with a two-wave total of 5.53 points. Both the surfers were consequently eliminated from the competition.
The eighth heat saw Gaskell get the better of his compatriot Dege O’Connell, former ASP World Championship Tour veteran Beschen and his compatriot Ian Crane.
Gaskell finished the heat above his rivals on the score-board with a heat-total of 10.33 points to secure victory, while Beschen finished right behind him in second place to accompany him into the next round of the competition.
Crane finished in third place with a heat-total of 8.67 points, while O’Connell had to settle for the bottom position after finishing with a heat-total of 4.53 points. Failure to finish in top-two resulted in the elimination of both the surfers from the
competition.
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