Tiago Pires and Charlie Brown make the Round 3 cut at the Australian Open of Surfing – Surfing News
Portugal’s Tiago Pires and Brazil’s Charlie Brown won their respective Round 2 (Round of 96) heats at the 6-Star Australian Open of Surfing at Manly Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Thursday, February 16.
Pires’ victory in the eighth heat sent him through to Round 3 (Round of 48). Australia’s Shaun Cansdell accompanied him to the next round after finishing second in the heat. Brazil’s Caue Wood finished third while America’s Eric Geiselman rounded out the
bottom position to find themselves ejected from the contention for the event title.
With his win in the ninth heat, Brown also moved into the next round. Australia’s Adam Melling successfully extended his life in the event as well by taking runner-up place. America’s Michael Dunphy and Australia’s Todd Rosewall finished in third and fourth
place respectively, consequently making a premature exit from the competition.
Pires got off to a slow start in the eighth heat, looking quite uncomfortable as he searched for a competitive score. Almost half-way through the heat, he collected a 5.43 off his first business-wave and soon backed it up with a 6.67-point wave. The resultant
heat-total of 12.10 points kept him in the lead until the end to make him victorious.
Cansdell did not have much luck with the waves either and only managed to earn a 4.10 and 6.37 off his top-two waves to finish with second place with a heat-total of 10.47 points.
Wood and Geiselman put on rather lacklustre performances, which eventually led to their elimination from the contest. The Brazilian finished with a heat-total of 9.97 points while the latter scored a mere 8.80 off his top-two waves.
The ninth heat turned out to be a much more intense fight for top honours as both Brown and Melling posted good scores on the score-board. However, Brown eventually managed to take the win with his heat-total of 15.20, which comprised of a 7.93 and 7.27-point
wave, while Melling was forced to settle for runner-up place after finishing 1.37 short of his rival’s score.
Dunphy finished in third place with a heat-total of 12.17 points, while Rosewall finished fourth with a two-wave total of 7.90 points. As a result, both the surfers got eliminated from the event.
There were still plenty of exciting surfing battles in the pipeline at the Australian Open of Surfing on Thursday.
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