Marlon Lipke and Tomas Hermes emerge triumphant in Round 4 at Miguel Pro Zarautz
German surfer Marlon Lipke and Brazilian talent Tomas Hermes were successfully able to grab the win in their respective Round 4 (Round of 24) heats at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz that continued at Zarautz
in Basque Country, Spain, on Friday, August 31.
Chile’s Manuel Selman finished in second place during the fifth heat to accompany the winner of the heat Lipke into the fifth round (Round of 16). Brazil’s Marco Fernandez, on the other hand, was unable to make it into the next round due to his third place
finish.
The sixth heat saw Hermes walk away with the win, while his compatriot Willian Cardoso grabbed runner-up place. Both the Brazilians qualified for the next round as a result. Australia’s Matt Banting failed to finish in top-two and thus was sent packing.
With strong onshore winds and three-to-four foot waves on offer at the main event site, the challenge was definitely there for the surfers as they continued to take each other on in three-man battles for survival.
Pitted against Selman and Fernandez during the fifth heat, Lipke clearly had his work cut out. The German surfer got off to a pretty decent start, earning a 6.50 off his first business-wave and went on to add an additional 6.77 points to his account, thus
finishing with a heat-total of 13.27 points. The score held up until the end to see him through to victory.
Selman made it through into the next round as well after scoring a couple of scores in the six-point range, thus finishing with a heat-total of 12.27 points.
A two-wave total of 11.23 points by Fernandez proved inadequate to earn him through into the next round.
The sixth heat saw Hermes put on a phenomenal performance to get the better of Cardoso and Banting.
The Brazilian surfer got off to a relatively slow start, but continued to build momentum as the heat progressed before eventually collecting a couple of scores in the eight-point range to finish with a heat-total of 16.50 points.
Cardoso accompanied him into the next round after finishing in runner-up place with a heat-total of 13.83 points, which included a 5.93 and 7.90-point ride.
Banting scored a 7.33 and 5.67 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 13.00 points. The effort was just not enough to keep him alive in the contention for the event title.
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