Miguel Pupo and Caio Ibelli make it to Round 4 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
Quiksilver Pro Portugal continued with the seventh and eighth heat of round of 24 (Round 3) at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal, on Thursday, June 16th.
Brazil’s Miguel Pupo walked away with top honours from the seventh heat by defeating his compatriot, Jesse Mendes, without breaking a sweat. The result confirmed Pupo’s place in the round of 12, while bringing Mendes’s competition to a premature end.
Brazil’s Caio Ibelli prevailed over French Polynesia’s Alain Riou in the eighth heat to remove his rival from the race for the event title and advance to the next round.
Pupo had already proved his surfing prowess and potential by claiming an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event victory almost two months ago. He was once again coming on as a strong contender for another win at Ribeira D’Ilhas.
Facing Mendes in the seventh heat, Pupo asserted his dominance quite early in the battle by locking a wave to throw down a combination of impressive flips and turns to score 7.67 points off it and place his competitor under pressure. He later added another
6.67 points to his account to move to a two-wave total of 14.34 points. The score turned out to be more than sufficient to carry him off to victory and reserve a slot for him in the round of 12.
Mendes remained extremely disappointing throughout the 30-minute heat, clearly failing to read the conditions and consequently unable to post a single good score. His two best scores of 2.17 and 1.57 earned him a bitter defeat and put him out of contention
for the event title.
The next heat pitted Ibelli against Riou in a battle for a coveted place in the next round in order to stay alive in the competition. Both the surfers had remained pretty impressive during the previous two rounds and an intense match was expected. The battle
truly lived up to the expectation as both the surfers fought hard for victory.
Ibelli got an upper hand quite early in the heat by locking a wave to throw down a string of sensational manoeuvres and earning a near-perfect score of 9.10 for the effort. Riou responded with an impressive 8.10-point wave to reduce the lead, but the Brazilian
immediately extended the heat by adding 6.50 points to his score after his second wave.
The French Polynesian required 7.51 points off his second wave to clinch victory. Earning 7.33 points off his second wave, he finished 0.17 points short of victory to helplessly watch Ibelli walk away with the win.
For more updates on Round 3 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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