Wilkinson, Andre, Simpson and Coleborn prevail in Round 3 of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime
Australia’s Matt Wilkinson, his compatriot Mitchel Coleborn, Brazil’s Jadson Andre and America’s Brett Simpson claimed top honours in their respective Round 3 (no-loser Round of 24) of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 2013 Quiksilver Saquarema
Prime that went down at Itauna beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, May 24, 2013.
With their success in the third round, all four surfers advanced directly to the fifth round, i.e. Round of 16.
The contenders for the coveted ASP Prime ranking points and a share of the hefty prize purse were met with four-to-six foot waves on the latest day of the competition.
The opening heat of Round 3 saw Wilkinson, defending event champion, taking on Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro and Bernardo Miranda in a battle for the Round 5 spot.
The Australian surfer did not look too comfortable during the course of the heat, but he managed to get to a decisive heat-total of 12.57 points after collecting a couple of scores in the six-point range.
Monteiro and Miranda failed to challenge Wilkinson’s score after finishing with a heat-total of 9.43 and 1.40 points respectively. As a result, they were forced to take a trip to the relegation round.
The second heat pitted Andre against Australia’s Stu Kennedy and Perth Standlick in a three-man battle for the Round 5 spot.
The Brazilian surfer made his solid form evident right from the start of the heat and eventually walked away with the win after scoring a 8.33 and 8.23 off his best-two waves to register a winning heat-total of 16.56 points.
Kennedy finished second with a heat-total of 15.46 points, while Standlick finished last after registering a dismal two-wave total of 7.90 points. Both the surfers will get another shot at the Round 5 spot in the relegation round.
Simpson prevailed over fellow American Kolohe Andino and Australia’s Heath Joske in the third heat.
He qualified for the Round of 16 after scoring a heat-total of 16.87 points against Andino’s and Joske’s heat-total of 13.77 and 10.90 points respectively.
“It’s my fourth time here at Saquarema and in my opinion it has the best and most consistent waves in Brazil,” stated Simpson. “The waves are perfect. I just came up from the WCT because I like to compete and I knew I could get some important points in the
ranking if I did well here.”
Coleborn downed his compatriot Dion Atkinson and America’s Tanner Gudauskas in the fourth heat to secure his place in the fifth round.
The victorious surfer scored an 8.27 and 7.00 off his best-two waves to get to a heat-total of 15.27 points, whereas Gudauskas and Atkinson finished with a two-wave total of 13.26 and 9.10 points respectively.
Tags: