Miguel Pupo and Nathan Yeomans advance to Round 3 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro – ASP Prime Event
The ninth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year, Billabong Azores Islands Pro, continued with the first and second heat of Round of 48 (Round 2) at Praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel, Portugal, on Thursday, September 29.
The first heat saw Brazil’s Miguel Pupo walk away with a comfortable win to secure his place in the Round of 24 (Round 3), while America’s Gabe Kling successfully avoided elimination as well by finishing as runner-up. Brazil’s Jeronimo Vargas and Australia’s
Chris Friend finished in third and fourth places respectively, consequently getting expelled from the competition.
America’s Nathan Yeomans clinched top honours in the second heat to go through to the next round. He was accompanied by Australia’s Adam Melling, who finished in second place to stay alive in contention for the event title. Australia’s Adam Robertson and
Hawaii’s Kevin Sullivan rounded out the third and fourth positions respectively, getting eliminated from the event as a result.
The 19-year-old Pupo continued to exhibit excellent form during the first heat of Round 2. As the four-man battle kicked-off, he went through a series of average-scoring waves before eventually collecting a 6.93. He soon unleashed a string of rail carves
and fore-snaps on a wave to earn a near-perfect 9.50 for the effort, consequently getting to a decisive heat-total of 16.43 points.
Commenting on the heat afterwards, Pupo said, “I was looking for a good wave and I only had a couple of 6’s. Then I started to think that I had to surf different. I did a couple of carves and a bang at the end. That is what the judges want to see so I am
just going to try and keep doing that in my next heats. The waves changed a little bit but it was still fun out there. You can really surf on these waves and I think everyone is happy to surf in these conditions.”
Kling remained pretty impressive during the 30-minute encounter as well and collected a couple of sevens to reach a heat-total of 14.97 points. The score got him the runner-up position and sent him through to the next round.
Vargas and Friend remained quite disappointing throughout the entirety of the contest and only managed to get to a heat-total of 10.80 and 9.44, respectively. The poor effort resulted in their elimination from the competition.
The second heat turned out to be quite an intense battle between Yeomans, Melling and Robertson for top honours, as all three surfers came up with remarkable performances.
However, it was Yeomans who managed to capture victory in the end after finishing with a heat-total of 14.50 points. A heat-total of 13.80 points secured Melling the second position and resulted in an extension of his life in the event. Robertson barely
missed out on the safe zone by 0.20 points after finishing with a heat-total of 13.60 points.
The fourth surfer in the battle, Sullivan, remained quite unthreatening as he struggled to adjust to the conditions and completely failed to meet the standards set by his rivals. He eventually finished in fourth place after earning a heat-total of 8.50 points.
Both he and Robertson failed to proceed in the competition due to their lacklustre performance.
For more updates on Round 2 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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