Royden Bryson and Marc Lacomare advance into Hainan Classic Semi-finals
South Africa’s Royden Bryson got the better of Japan’s Kenta Hayashi in the third Quarter-final, while France’s Marc Lacomare took down fellow countryman Joan Duru in the fourth Quarter-final of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Hainan
Classic on at the Riyue Bay in Wanning, China, on Friday, January 13, to confirm their place in their Semi-finals.
The surfing conditions at Riyue Bay had been showing consistent improvement since the very first day of the competition. What started off as a three-foot surf had now increased to a four-to-six foot wave on the third day of Hainan Classic.
With great surfing conditions at hand, the event moved to the third Quarter-final, pitting Bryson against Hayashi in a man-on-man battle.
The South Africa-based Bryson had put on a pretty impressive performance in his Round 2 heat to claim top honours just a day earlier. With a confident victory behind him, Bryson indeed held a psychological advantage over his latest challenger, Hayashi, who
had qualified for the Quarter-finals through a runner-up finish.
As the third Quarter-final got underway, Bryson went through a series of average wave-scores before making a charge on his first business-wave to post a 7.73 on the score-board. Hayashi, however, kept the pressure from mounting too much by collecting a 7.03-point
wave.
The Japanese surfer added another 7.00 to his account to move into the lead with a heat-total of 14.03 points. The joy turned out to be short-lived for Hayashi as Bryson collected another 7.73 off his last wave of the heat to move to a heat-total of 15.46
points, thus taking the win and advancing through into the next round.
The fourth Quarter-final saw Frenchmen Lacomare and Duru take each other on in the battle for the coveted Semi-final slot.
As the man-on-man battle kicked off, Duru got off to a decent start, drawing first blood with a 6.33-point wave. Almost halfway through the heat, he added another 6.00 points to his account to move to a heat-total of 12.33 points.
Lacomare went through a series of average scores before making a late charge. Locking his first business-wave, the French surfer posted a 7.40 on the score-board. In the dying minutes of the heat, he caught a wave to give it his all and successfully added
an 8.50 to his account, thus surpassing Duru with a heat-total of 15.90 points to take the win.
The inaugural ASP 4-Star Hainan Classic is the second event of the Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival Presented by Quiksilver.
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