Successful Round 4 heat carries Jordy Smith into the Quarter-finals at Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
South Africa’s Jordy Smith emerged triumphant in the third heat of Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast’s Round 4 that went down at the renowned Snapper Rocks in Queensland, Australia, on Tuesday, February 28.
The successful result in the third heat carried Smith into the Quarter-finals. Australia’s Joel Parkinson finished in runner-up place while Brazil’s Miguel Pupo rounded out the third position, consequently getting relegated to Round 5 to battle it out for
a place in the Quarter-finals.
The two-to-three foot waves on offer at the primary event site put the skills and experience of surfers to test. Even though there was not a lot of pressure over the surfers during the Round 4 heats as a failure to success the win would not have eliminated
them from the event, they were still pretty determined to get their hands on victory to skip the fifth round.
Pitted against the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Runner-Up Parkinson and an in-form Pupo in the third heat, the 24-year-old Smith clearly had his work cut out for him.
As the battle got under-way, the South African got off to a promising start, scoring a 7.27 off his first business-wave. However, the 30-year-old Parkinson managed to edge past him on the score-board by collecting a 7.67 off his first business-wave, snatching
the lead.
As the heat progressed, Smith managed to move ahead of Parkinson once again by locking a juicy wave and pulling off a series of exquisite manoeuvres on it to earn an 8.17 for the effort, taking his heat-total to 15.44 points.
The Australian searched hard for an adequate response. Despite managing to score a 7.63 off his second business-wave, Parkinson finished with a heat-total of 15.30 points, 0.14 points short of the required score and consequently conceding victory to Smith.
“I wanted to beat Joel [Parkinson] bad,” Smith said. “He has beaten me pretty much my whole life, so I’ve got a lot to get him back for. He’s also one of my favourite surfers so it’s tough to come up against him. Miguel [Pupo] is another tough one because
he’s got all the tricks in the book. Choosing the right waves is pretty key out there.”
The 20-year-old Pupo had done exceptionally well to eliminate the two-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning from the competition in Round 3, but failed to make the same impact in his Round 4 heat. Scoring a 5.17 and 5.87 off his best-two waves, he finished
with a heat-total of 11.04 points, rounding out the third position as a result.
The 2012 ASP World Tour action continued on Tuesday with the remaining Round 4 heats of Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast presented by Land Rover.
Tags: