Olamana Eleogram and Kelly Slater dominant in Round 2 of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro – Surfing News
Hawaii’s Olamana Eleogram and America’s Kelly Slater confirmed their place in the third round (Round of 24) of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro after claiming top honours in their respective Round 2 (Round of 48) heats that went down at Margaret River in Australia on Wednesday, March 21.
Australia’s Bede Durbidge and Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia also managed to advance through into the next round after securing first runner-up positions in the fifth and sixth heat respectively.
The conditions prevailing at the primary event site on the third day of the second Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event of the season were not short of great, with the size of the waves lying around the six-foot range. There was plenty of opportunity for the world’s best surfers gathered at Margaret River to dig deep their bag of tricks and treat the fans to a heavy dose of adrenaline-pumping action.
The fifth heat featured a four-man showdown featuring Eleogram, Durbidge, his compatriot Tom Innes and Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro.
Finding a rare Margaret River tube ride, Eleogram managed to post a near-perfect 9.57 on the scoreboard. After a long and determined search, he managed to add an additional 5.20 points to his account, finishing with a heat-total of 14.77 points as a result.
Durbidge finished in runner-up place with a two-wave total of 11.77 points, which included a 5.17 and 6.60-point wave, to go through into the next round.
Monteiro and Innes put up pretty lacklustre performances and consequently got eliminated from the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 8.57 and 8.40 points respectively.
The next heat saw the 11-time ASP World Champion Slater stun the crowd with yet another outstanding performance to clinch top honours.
The Florida-based surfer locked his first business-wave to post an 8.83 on the score-board and later added an additional 8.93 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 17.76 points.
“The waves were really nice and clean,” Slater said after the heat. “I got a couple of good waves at the start and was pretty confident I’d make it through the heat no matter what happened. So I just tried to have some fun after that. It’s double overhead out there, but I think the swell is dying off tonight and tomorrow, but then the day after tomorrow we will have another big swell.”
Patacchia was nothing short of remarkable during the heat either, posting a 7.03 and 9.10 on the scoreboard off his best-two waves. The Hawaiian managed to secure runner-up place with this heat-total and thus extended his life in the event.
America’s Yeomans and Australia’s Mitch Crews rounded out the bottom-two position with a heat-total of 13.34 and 11.03 points respectively, consequently getting removed from the contention for the event title.
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