Miguel Pupo and Nathan Yeomans advance to Round 2 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro – ASP Prime Event
The ninth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s Prime event of the year, Billabong Azores Islands Pro, kicked-off with the first heat of Round of 96 (Round 1) at Praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel, Portugal, on Wednesday, September 28.
The heat saw Brazil’s Miguel Pupo come up with an outstanding performance to take top honours and advance through to the Round of 48 (Round 2). America’s Nathan Yeomans also managed to survive the first round by taking a runner-up place, consequently making
the Round 2 cut. Australia’s Davey Cathels and Portugal’s Filipe Jervis were forced to make an early exit from the competition after rounding out the third and fourth places, respectively.
The opening day of the latest ASP Prime event was graced by high-performance waves, though there were slight off-shore winds at the event site. The stage seemed to be set for a series of exciting battles between some of the most talented surfers from all
around the globe.
The first heat of Round 1 pitted the 19-year-old Pupo against Yeomans, Cathels and Jervis in a four-man battle. Fresh from his ASP Dream Tour opening event in Trestles, where he had failed to make much of an impact, the young Brazilian was intent on getting-off
to a great start at Praia de Santa Barbara.
As the heat kicked-off, Pupo got-off to a slow start because he had little luck with catching waves. However, he came across a juicy set of waves almost halfway through the heat, which he utilised to throw down a string of exciting manoeuvres and post an
8.33 on the scoreboard. A few minutes later, he managed to add an additional 7.57 points to his account, moving to a heat-total of 15.90 points. The score kept him ahead of the pack on the scoreboard and eventually sealed the fate of the contest in his favour.
Commenting on the heat afterwards, Pupo said, “At the ning of the heat I was nervous as I didn’t catch any waves and I was sitting out there hoping to catch something. Then a nice set came to me and got into the barrel with a late. I almost fell but I got
the score and a couple more waves so I enjoyed it a lot.”
Yeomans also managed to extend his life in the event by securing a second-place finish. He caught a couple of good waves early in the heat and scored a 6.00 and 6.93 off them to get to a heat-total of 12.93 points.
Cathels rounded out the third place after finishing with a two-wave total of 11.26 points, which included a 5.33 and 5.93-point wave. Jervis remained quite disappointing throughout the 30-minutee heat and only managed to attain a heat-total of 7.50 points.
For more updates on Round 1 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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