Nic Muscroft and Dion Atkinson triumph in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The round of 96 (Round 1) of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 continued with heat 22 and 23 on Wednesday, June 15th, at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal.
Australia’s Nic Muscroft came up with an amazing performance to take the top honours in heat 22, while his compatriot, Tom Whitaker, finished second. Both surfers successfully moved into the next round. However, the other two competitors in the four-way
battle, Brazil’s Jano Belo and Northern Spain’s Eneko Acero, saw their competition come to a premature end after finishing in third and fourth positions respectively.
Australia’s Dion Atkinson walked away victorious from heat 23, leaving Brazil’s Hizunome Bettero to finish in second place. France’s Vincent Duvignac and America’s Eric Geiselman rounded out the bottom-two positions, consequently getting eliminated from
the competition.
Heat 22 turned out to be an extremely intense battle between Muscroft and Whitaker. Both surfers caught a few waves only, but they really made them count. Muscroft collected an amazing 8.27 off his first wave and followed it up with a 7.33-point wave to
finish with a heat-total of 15.60.
Whitaker responded with a near-perfect 9.00 score off his first wave and moved in a favourable position to clinch victory, requiring 6.60 points off his second wave only. However, he fell short by 0.10 points and had to settle for second place instead.
While the top-two finishers remained quite sensational, the performances by Belo and Acero turned out to be rather disappointing. The Brazilian only managed to earn 9.74 points from his two waves, while the Spanish finished with 7.63 points only.
The next heat turned out to be a low-scoring one, lacking the passion and intensity that was witnessed in the previous heat. Atkinson scored 6.17 and 5.83 points from his two best waves to finish with a two-wave score of 12.00 and walk away with top honours,
getting his place in the next round confirmed as a result.
Bettero also collected a couple of decent scores, which included 6.00 from his first wave and 5.37 points from his second, to finish in second place and extend his life in the event by qualifying for Round 2.
Duvignac and Geiselman were unable to read the conditions properly and ended up giving quite unimpressive performances during the 30-minute heat. The French finished with a two-wave total of 10.26 to clinch third position, while the American finished last
with an extremely disappointing total of 7.57 points.
For more updates on Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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