Pupo and Dorian through, Fanning out after Round 3 at Billabong Pipe Masters
Brazil’s Miguel Pupo and Hawaii’s Shane Dorian were able to successfully advance to the fourth round at the Billabong Pipe Masters, the tenth and final stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after clinching victory in their respective Round 3 heats that went down at the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, on Sunday, December 9.
Pupo beat France’s Jeremy Flores in the 11th heat of Round 3 to make his way through to Round 4, consequently bringing the competition to a premature end for his rival.
The 12th heat featured one of the biggest upsets of the day as Australia’s Mick Fanning succumbed to Dorian, getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
The pumping six-to-eight foot waves at the Banzai Pipeline had already delivered plenty of exciting contests and surprises since the start of the day and it was only expected to deliver more of the similar action during the final hours of day’s proceedings.
Pupo found himself taking on Flores in a man-on-man battle for the Round 4 spot during the 11th heat.
The young Brazilian sensation got off to a solid start, netting a 7.83 off his first business-wave and went on to add an additional 4.00 to his account, thus getting to a heat-total of 11.83 points.
Flores failed to respond with the necessary score and only managed to get to a heat-total of 10.10 points, which included a 5.50 and 4.60-point ride.
The battle for the last remaining slot in the fourth round went down between the two-time ASP World Champion Fanning and event wildcard Dorian.
Despite the latter being the underdog in the contest, the 31-year-old Fanning ended up surrendering victory to him.
The Australian surfer posted an 8.07 on the score-board off his first business-wave and went on to add an additional 7.00 points to his account, thus getting to a heat-total of 15.07 points.
This effort, however, proved insufficient as Dorian got past him with an 8.17 and 7.50-point ride, which took him to a decisive heat-total of 15.67 points.
Fanning remained pretty graceful despite his chances of clinching his third ASP Title coming to an end.
“Shane (Dorian) has been a hero of mine since I learned how to surf and I wanted to be in the water with him,” Fanning said. “We said we’d make it a fun one out there. We were going t*t-for-tat and I was close on the last one but it got me at the end. I was relaxed going in to this event because it (the ASP World Title) was a long shot. There was no pressure on me and I wanted to give it my all and finish well. I had a good heat and threw everything I had at it.”
With still enough at the event site, the organisers decided to let the action continue with the opening heats of Round 4.
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