Masatoshi Ohno and Kai Otton qualify for Saquarema Pro International’s round of 24
The seventh heat of Saquarema Pro International’s round of 48 concluded at the beach break of Itauna in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday evening, May 26th.
After an intense battle, Japanese Masatoshi Ohno clinched the win to advance to the next stage of the competition, the round of 24. Australia’s Kai Otton put up a determined fight, but eventually had to settle for second place. The result, however, confirmed
his place in the next round of the event as well.
Brazil’s Hizunome Bettero and France’s Tim Boal finished in third and fourth place respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the fourth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year.
With hardly two-to-three foot waves breaking at the primary event site, accompanied by the offshore wind, the surfers had a tough time in the sea. They had to depend more on their experience than their skills to catch good waves and utilise it to its maximum
potential.
Even under such demanding conditions, Ohno managed to hold his own and give an impressive performance. He threw down an amazing set of tricks on his first wave to secure a score of 7.03 and followed it up with a striking 7.40 wave. The heat total of 14.43
allowed him to secure victory and advance to the next round.
Australia’s Otton put up a commendable fight, pushing himself hard to catch waves and attempting to impress the judges with his tricks. He earned 6.17 from his first wave and needed a 8.27 to deprive his Japanese rival of victory. However, he failed to get
the required score and finished the heat with a final score of 13.60.
The local surfer, Bettero, caught a fair amount of waves during the heat, but was not able to follow up his decent first-wave score of 6.67 with another good score. His second-best score of the heat was 4.63, resulting in a final score of 11.30 and putting
him in third place.
France’s Boal looked completely out of sorts during the heat, scoring a 3.07 and 2.27 off his two waves to finish with a total score of 5.34. It was a disappointing performance and he had to pay dearly for it, getting eliminated from the Saquarema Pro International
along with Bettero.
Due to fading light, the event organisers called it a day after the seventh heat finished. The next day of the competition will kick off with the eighth heat of round of 48.
Tags: