Michel Bourez and Simao Romao qualify for Saquarema Pro International’s round of 24
Saquarema Pro International’s second stage, the round of 48, kicked off on Thursday, May 26th, at the beach-break of Itauna in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The first heat of the second round pitted the French Polynesian, Michel Bourez, against Brazil’s Simao Romao, Australia’s Benn Dunn and France’s Marc Lacomare. After an intense contest, it was Bourez who walked away victorious, while Romao finished in the
runner-up position to stay in the competition. Dunn and Lacomare rounded out the third and fourth place respectively and find themselves eliminated from the event.
The conditions at Itauna turned out to be even worse than the first day. In contrast to the three-to-five foot waves that prevailed at the primary event site, the second day saw two-to-three foot waves breaking at the beach. The small waves, accompanied
by the offshore winds, presented the surfers with a consistent challenge throughout their heats. Not only were they competing against each other for the waves and looking to score big, they were battling against mother-nature.
Bourez had gotten off to a good start on Wednesday in terms of the end result, but had not looked too comfortable in the sea due to the low tides. Met by the same conditions in his second heat of the event, he looked much better and managed to earn a score
of 13.30 after his two waves. The score remained unbeatable and confirmed him as the winner.
Romao had made it to the round of 48 after finishing in the runner-up position in the previous round of the event. He seemed to have adjusted to the conditions much better than yesterday and managed to earn 12.83 from his two waves to maintain his runner-up
position in the second round as well.
Australia’s Dunn tried to make the best of the waves on offer but the challenge proved too much for him and he ended up with a final score of 12.04. The score put him up in third place, adding him to the list of eliminated competitors.
Lacomare’s fourth place finish and elimination came as a real surprise. The French had looked so impressive in the first round, taking first place in his heat. However, he seemed to be a completely different person in his second heat. Struggling to catch
good waves and looking extremely uncomfortable while going for his manoeuvres, he earned himself a disappointing 11.03 to end up at the bottom position in the heat.
Bourez and Romao have qualified for the next stage of the event, the round of 24, while the bottom two surfers are free to head home.
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