Simao Romao off to an excellent start at the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime – Surfing News
Brazil’s Simao Romao clinched top honours in the opening heat of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round of 96 (Round 1) that kicked-off at the point-break of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 22.
The outcome of the heat served to carry Romao into the second round (Round of 48) of the competition. He was accompanied into the next round by Hawaii’s Sebastien Zietz who finished in runner-up place. Brazil’s Miguel Pupo and French Polynesia’s Alain Riou
rounded out the third and fourth positions respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The third event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime calendar had attracted 96 heavily-talented surfers from around the globe to compete for a share of the $US 250,000 prize purse along with the coveted ASP ranking points that were
on offer. The conditions prevailing at the primary event site turned out to be epic, with waves in the six-to-eight foot range gracing the beach on Tuesday morning.
The first heat of the competition saw Romao take on Zietz, Pupo and Riou in a four-man battle. The showdown was expected to be full of fireworks considering the favourable surfing conditions on hand.
As the battle got underway, Romao wasted very little time to stamp his authority in the heat with a dominant performance. Utilising his local knowledge of the waves, the Brazilian talent grabbed a scoring opportunity in the opening minutes of the heat to
post a 7.50 on the score-board. He continued the momentum to add another 7.00 points to his account, thus reaching a heat-total of 14.50 points.
Zietz put on a determined fight to try and knock Romao off the first place, but his efforts turned out to be in vain. Scoring a 6.10 and 5.37 off his best-two waves, the Hawaiian surfer finished with a heat-total of 11.47 points, thus settling for runner-up
place.
A lacklustre performance by Pupo only got him to a heat-total of 10.83 points, which comprised of a 5.83 and 5.00-point wave. The Tahiti-charger Riou put on an even more dismissal performance to end up with a two-wave total of 9.20 points. Both the surfers
were consequently forced to make a premature exit from the competition.
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