Marc Lacomare and Joan Duru shine in the opening round of Hainan Classic
The Frenchmen Marc Lacomare and Joan Duru won their respectively heats in Round 1 (Round of 64) of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Hainan Classic, which went down at Wanning in Hainan Island, China, on Wednesday, January 11, to confidently
make their way into the next round.
Lacomare collected the win by getting the better of Peru’s Cristobal De Col, South Africa’s Greg Emslie and Australia’s Lincoln Taylor in the 11th heat. De Col finished in second place to advance through into Round 2 (Round of 32) as well. The
third and fourth place finish by Emslie and Taylor respectively resulted in their elimination from the competition.
The 12th heat saw Duru claim victory over Argentina’s Santiago Di Pace, his compatriot Marcelo Rodriguez and America’s Taylor Thorne. While Di Pace extended his life in the event by securing runner-up finish, Thorne and Rodriguez failed to make
the Round 2 cut after finishing in third and fourth place respectively.
With great surfing conditions at hand, which included three-to-four foot waves, the 11th heat got underway on the opening day of the competition. De Col drew first blood with a 7.33-point wave to take an early lead, but his joy was short-lived
as Lacomare got ahead of him on the score-board by scoring 8.00 points off his first business-wave.
De Col managed to move back into the lead after adding an additional 6.67 points to his account to move to a heat-total of 14.00 points. With only a few minutes left for the buzzer to go off, Lacomare managed to score a 9.00 off a wave to move to a heat-total
of 17.00 points, consequently clinching the win while pushing the Peruvian surfer to runner-up place.
Emslie finished in third place with a heat-total of 10.50 points, which comprised of a 5.67 and 4.83-point wave. Taylor remained the least impressive surfer of the lot after scoring a total of 9.64 points in total off his top-two waves. Failing to meet the
standard that had been set by Lacomare and De Col in the heat, both Emslie and Taylor got removed from the contention for the event title.
The next heat saw yet another Frenchman, Duru, steal the show through a display of sensational skills and style to eventually take the win with a convincing margin.
As the heat kicked off, Duru got down to business right away and opened his account in the opening minutes with a 7.83-point wave. He soon added another 6.17 points to his account, moving to a decisive heat-total of 14.00 points.
Di Pace failed to put on a decent performance, but still managed to advance into the next round after securing runner-up place with a heat-total of 9.97 points.
Thorne finished with a heat-total of 8.72 points, while Rodriguez finished at the bottom with 8.26 points. Both the surfers got eliminated from the competition as a result of their lacklustre performance.
The inaugural ASP 4-Star Hainan Classic is the second event of Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival Presented by Quiksilver.
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