Walsh and Malpartida through to the finals at ASP 3-Star Maui and Sons Arica Pro – Surfing news
Australia’s Anthony Walsh and Peru’s Alvaro Malpartida successfully secured their place in the finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 3-Star Maui and Sons Arica Pro presented by Monster Energy and Sony, which continued at El Gringo in Arica,
Chile, on Saturday, June 15, 2013.
Walsh got the better of Peru’s Gabriel Villaran in the first semi-final to make his way through into the final, removing the latter from the contention for the event title in the process.
Uruguay’s Marco Giorgi failed to hold his own against Malpartida in the second semi-final, consequently being eliminated from the competition and sending his rival through into the finals.
The conditions prevailing at the reef break of El Gringo on the final day of the competition could be fairly described as ideal for surfing, with the four-to-six foot waves possessing just enough juice to reward in-form surfers with big scores.
Both Walsh and Villaran had been looking pretty solid since the start of the latest edition of Maui and Sons Arica Pro. The latter in particular had been displaying a formidable form and understandably so, as it was this very place where he had claimed the
over-all victory at Maui and Sons World Start Tour event in 2009.
As the first semi-final got underway, both the Australian as well as the Peruvian surfer did not look too much at ease as they tried to tame the waves, which were expected to assist them in posting big scores on the score-board.
The hunt went on for quite some time, with both the surfers getting a series of average scores.
Walsh, however, eventually managed to finish on top of Villaran, though just barely. He registered a heat-total of 11.87 points against his rival’s two-wave total of 11.50 points.
Even though the victory was marginal, it was more than sufficient to get him through into the finals.
The second heat pitted Malpartida against Giorgi, with the latter being the favourite because of his seemingly better form.
Once the battle started, both the surfers got down to business right away. Neither of them wanted the other to enjoy an early advantage over them.
Giorgi got hold of a juicy wave and converted it into a solid score, which he soon backed up with another good score to finish with a heat-total of 14.36 points.
Malpartida responded to the challenge really well and got himself a couple of big scores to eventually finish ahead of his rival with a two-wave total of 15.96 points.
The Peruvian surfer’s lead held up until the end to eventually seal the fate of the battle in his favour, thus sending him through into the final, where he was to face Walsh in a battle for the overall win.
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