Michel Bourez defeats Brett Simpson to head into Round 3 of Billabong Rio Pro – Surfing News
French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez barely made it through into the fourth round of Billabong Rio Pro, the third of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, after getting the better of America’s Brett Simpson in the second
heat of Round 3 that went down at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, May 14.
While the result of the battle served to extend Bourez’s life in the event, it brought the Simpson’s pursuit of the event title to an end prematurely.
The event organisers had moved the opening round of the competition to the secondary event venue of Arpoador on Wednesday to make the most of the relatively better surfing conditions prevailing there. After four days of rest, the competition resumed at the
primary event site. While the conditions had improved at Barra da Tijuca, the barrelling four-to-six foot waves did not make it any easier for the surfers to collect big scores during their battles for survival in the contention for the event title.
The second heat of Round 3 saw Bourez and Simpson square off for the Round 4 spot. Both the surfers had looked pretty uncomfortable in the challenging waves, though they deserved credit for ensuring their survival in the event. The work was far from done
though as they still had to surf another heat in the tough stormy surfing conditions.
As the second heat got underway, the 26-year-old Bourez got off to a modest start, locking his first business-wave to post a 4.27 to his account. Keeping the momentum going, the Tahiti-based surfer added an additional 4.43 points to his account to move to
a heat-total of 8.70 points.
Simpson did not have a huge target to beat, but the surfing conditions at hand made it into a daunting task. He locked his first business-wave halfway through the heat to post 5.50 points on the score-board. The American surfer kept searching for another
decent score, but his efforts turned out to be in vain. Scoring a maximum of 3.13 off his second business-wave in the final minutes of the heat, Simpson finished with a heat-total of 8.63 points. The 0.07-point deficit forced him to concede victory to Bourez.
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