Owen Wright and Tom Whitaker advance to Round 3 of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro – Surfing News
Australia’s Owen Wright and his fellow countryman Tom Whitaker advanced through into the third round (Round of 24) of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro that continued at Margaret River in Australia on Wednesday, March 21.
The successful result in the second round served to add Wright and Whitaker into the third round (Round of 24). America’s Gabe Kling and Australia’s Adrian Buchan also made the Round 3 cut after taking first runner-up place in the first and second heat respectively.
The third day of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event saw six-foot waves breaking at the primary event site. The conditions seemed ideal for yet another day of adrenaline-pumping action as the best surfers from around the world took each other on in four-man battles to stay alive in the four-man battle.
Squaring off with New Zealand’s Jay Quinn, Brazil’s Messias Felix and America’s Kling, Wright came up with a sensational performance to clinch top honours.
After going through a series of average-scores, the young Australian sensation stepped up to post a 9.00 on the score-board and soon followed it up with a 7.77-point wave for a heat-total of 16.77 points. The score served to seal the fate of the four-man battle in his favour.
Kling made the Round 3 cut as well after finishing with a heat-total of 15.46 points, which comprised of a 7.13 and 8.33-point wave.
Quinn and Felix rounded out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 14.83 and 8.60 points respectively.
The second heat of Round 2 saw Whitaker put his local knowledge of the waves to use and collect an 8.77 and 8.27 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 17.04 points. The score proved to be decisive, earning him top honours to send him through into the next round.
“The waves are perfect,” Whitaker said. “You don’t get this kind of wind in WA very often. The rights freaked me out a little so I caught a couple of lefts, I even scored a tube ride which is rare for me out there. This is as good as Margarets gets.”
Buchan rounded out the runner-up position after scoring a heat-total of 14.00 points, which included a 6.50 and 7.50-point wave.
America’s Patrick Gudauskas and France’ Joan Duru were forced to make a premature exit from 2012 Telstra Drug Award Pro after finishing in third and fourth place respectively, with the American surfer scoring a heat-total of 9.90 points while the latter only managed to get to a two-wave total of 6.16 points.
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