Richard Christie and Gabriel Medina triumphant in Round 2 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The first two heats of Quiksilver Pro Portugal’s round of 48 (Round Two) went down at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal, on Wednesday, June 15th.
The first heat saw New Zealand’s Richard Christie edge past Northern Spain’s Aritz Aranburu to clinch top honours, making the latter settle for runner-up position. America’s Austin Ware rounded out third position, while Brazil’s Jihad Medina finished last.
The top-two finishers advanced to the next round, while the bottom-two got ejected from the competition.
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina outshone his rivals in the second heat of the latest round to make his place certain in Round 3. America’s Cory Lopez was successful in staying alive in the competition as well by securing a second-place finish. Barbados’s Dimitri
Ouvre and Australia’s Ben Dunn were ousted from the title contention after rounding out the bottom two positions.
The first heat of Round 2 featured an intense battle between Christie and Aranburu. Both the surfers surfed exceptionally well, posting high scores in the process. Aranburu scored 7.50 points off his first wave and later added another 7.77 points to his
account to finish with a heat-total of 15.27. However, the New Zealander managed to surpass this respectable total by 0.46 points after scoring 7.83 off his first good wave and 7.90 from his second and walked away with the win. Both the surfers did, however,
qualify for the next round.
Ware and Khodr were unable to meet the standards set by their two rivals. Even though they had looked pretty impressive on the first day, they were unable to come up with a solid performance on Wednesday. The American merely scored 9.36 points from his two
waves, while the Brazilian finished at the bottom with 9.18 points from his two-waves.
The performance by Medina remained the main highlight of the second heat of round of 48. The Brazilian continued to impress everyone with his amazing form. Catching a really good wave in the initial stages of the heat, he threw down a string of impressive
turns and flips to earn 8.33 well-deserved points.
Not quite done yet, Medina followed his first wave with another impressive 7.33-point wave to end the heat with a total of 15.66 points. The score earned him a convincing victory over his competition and reserved a spot for him in the next round.
Lopez looked slightly out of rhythm during the heat, but fortunately for her and her fans, she managed to make it through to the next round by clinching the second position after scoring 5.50 and 6.00 points off her two waves.
Ouvre and Dunn did not seem too comfortable out in the sea, clearly unable to read the conditions. The Barbadian merely earned 7.47 points in total from his two best waves, while the Australian finished with a disappointing heat-total of 6.26 points. As
a result, they were removed from the race for the event title.
For more updates on Round 2 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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