Owen Wright off to an ideal start at the Brazilian stop of the 2012 ASP World Tour
Australia’s Owen Wright successfully secured his place in the third round of Billabong Rio Pro, the third of ten events on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour roster, after claiming top honours in the third heat of Round 1 that went down at the alternate event venue of Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 9.
Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro and America’s Taylor Knox were forced to settle for second and third place respectively after an exquisite performance by their Australian rival. However, the two surfers still had an opportunity of making it through into the third round by clinching a successful result in their respective Round 2 heats.
The primary event site of Barra da Tijuca failed to offer the sort of conditions that the event organisers were looking to start the competition in. In the end, the opening round of the latest elite tour event was shifted to Arpoador, which was being graced by clean two-to-four foot left-handers and thus offering promising potential scoring opportunities to the surfers.
The third heat of Round 1 saw Wright square off with Monteiro and Knox in a three-man battle for the Round 3 spot. All three surfers were heavily talented, though the specific characteristics of the three surfers could easily seal the fate of the battle in their favour.
Wright, current No.5 on the ASP World Title rankings due to a couple of fifth-place finishes, took only a small bit of time to completely steal the show as the heat got underway. The 22-year-old South Wales-based surfer went through a series of ordinary scores before locking his first business-wave to unload a series of exquisite tricks, which enabled him to post a 7.17 on the score-board. He kept the charge going and successfully added an additional 6.43 points to his account, thus reaching a two-wave total of 13.60 points.
Despite his local knowledge of the waves, Monteiro was unable to pose a serious threat to his young Australian rival’s lead. Collecting a couple of scores in the four-point range, the Brazilian surfer finished with a heat-total of 9.20 points.
Knox finished in third place after failing to find his rhythm throughout the entirety of the 30-minute heat. His best scores included a 2.43 and 3.60, thus getting him to a heat-total of 6.03 points. Both he and Monteiro made their way into the relegation Round 2 to have another go at making a place for themselves in the third round.
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