Simpson, Logie, Pupo and Toledo make the Round 3 cut at Billabong Rio Pro – Surfing news
America’s Brett Simpson, South Africa’s Travis Logie and the two Brazilian surfers, namely Miguel Pupo and Filipe Toledo, successfully made it through the Round 2 of Billabong Rio Pro.
The arrival of a decent swell at the primary event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, May 17, 2013, allowed the Round 2 proceedings of stop No. 3 on the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour to
finally get underway.
Simpson and his American compatriot Damien Hobgood had suffered defeat in their respective Round 1 heats, which is why they found themselves taking each other on in the ninth heat of Round 2 for a spot in the third round.
Both the surfers clearly looked in a much better form on the latest day of the competition and displayed a solid intent to settle for nothing less than victory.
The battle between the two American surfers went down to the wire, but once the dust settled, it was Simpson who stood victorious, courtesy of his heat-total of 15.10 points against his rival’s two-wave total of 15.04 points.
The tenth heat saw Logie and Australia’s Kieren Perrow taking each other on in a battle for survival. Both of them were fully aware of the fact that it was possible for only one of them to go through to the next round and they left no stone unturned to ensure
that it was them who got to secure the coveted Round 3 spot.
Even though the 30-minute heat turned out to be low on potential scoring opportunities, Logie barely managed to extend his life in the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 11.40 points against his rival’s two-wave score of 10.76 points.
The 11th heat turned out to be a Brazilian affair, with Pupo and Alejo Muniz competing against each other for a place in the third round.
The 21-year-old Pupo collected a couple of scores in the six-point range to register a heat-total of 12.23 points, while Muniz finished behind him with a heat-total of 10.50 points, thus surrendering victory to his rival.
“I knew it was going to be a hard heat with Alejo (Muniz),” Pupo said. “He’s a good friend of mine and it’s been a tense week with all of the lay-days. I’m just stoked to make it after having a whole week off. It’s funny because Alejo was telling me that
this is the third time he has lost at the end of the heat. It’s always hard when you have to surf against a good friend. You don’t want to lose to them, but at the same time you don’t want them to lose either.”
The contest for the last-remaining spot in the third round took place between Toledo and Australia’s Matt Wilkinson.
It turned out to be a one-sided contest, with the Brazilian surfer walking away with a comprehensive victory over Wilkinson after registering a heat-total of 10.70 points, whereas his rival finished with a heat-total of 4.93 points.
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