Tanner Gudauskas and Davey Cathels triumph in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event, continued with the 18th and 19th heat of round of 96 (Round 1) on Wednesday, June 15th, at the beach-break of Ribera D’Ilhas in Ericeira,
Portugal.
America’s Tanner Gudauskas prevailed in the 18th heat to advance to the next round of the competition, while clinching the runner-up position allowed France’s Maxime Huscenot to stay alive in the race for the event title as well. Japan’s Masatoshi
Ohno and Brazil’s Diego Rosa finished third and fourth, getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
In the next heat, Australia’s Davey Cathels walked away with top honours, while Guadeloupe’s Charles Martin finished second to make it to the next round. America’s Gabe Kling and France’s Marc Lacomare finished in third and fourth positions respectively,
finding themselves ejected from the competition.
As the 18th heat kicked off, Gudauskas got down to business right in the beginning, locking a wave to score an amazing 8.00 off it and move into the lead. To further widen the gap, he added a 7.60 to his account to move to a two-wave total of
15.60 points. The impressive total proved to be too much for his competitors to beat, hence surrendering victory to him.
With the American holding on to the top position, the battle for the second position became intense. Huscenot, however, successfully grabbed the coveted position by scoring 5.67 and 6.73 points off his two waves to finish with a two-wave total of 12.40.
Ohno and Rosa remained pretty unimpressive, scoring 10.67 and 8.33 points off their two waves respectively. As a result, neither of them managed to make a place in the next round.
Cathels remained the highlight of the 19th heat, exhibiting his surfing prowess and good form. He caught a decent wave almost half-way through the heat to earn 6.10 points off it and immediately followed it up with a spectacular 8.73-point wave
to finish with a two-wave total of 14.83 points. The amazing run allowed him to walk away with victory.
Martin, a relatively unknown surfer, made his presence felt during the heat by catching a couple of good waves to score 6.50 and 6.97 points off them and finishing with a two-wave score of 13.47 points, a score good enough to secure the runner-up position
and remain alive in the event title race.
Kling and Lacomare put up almost similar performances in terms of scores, getting a two-wave total of 12.20 and 12.00 points respectively. The weak performances forced them out of the event title contention.
For more updates on the first round of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, remain tuned to bettor.com.
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