Tiago Pires move into Quarter-final of Billabong Rio Pro after superb Round 4 win

Tiago Pires advances to Quarter-final of Billabong Rio Pro after impressive Round 4 win

Portugal’s Tiago Pires claimed top honours in the first heat of Billabong Rio Pro’s Round 4 that went down at the beach-break of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 15.

The victory served to carry Pires straight into the Quarter-final stage. South Africa’s Jordy Smith and French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez rounded out the second and third position respectively, consequently getting relegated to the fifth round.

The latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series had remained deprived of excellent surfing conditions so far. The three-to-five foot barrels on offer at the primary event site on Tuesday served as a pretty good canvas for the elite surfers to show off their skills, though the strong winds and rain added a bit of a challenge.

The opening heat of the non-elimination Round 4 pitted Pires against two formidable competitors Smith and Bourez. The three-man bout was expected to be full of fireworks considering the amount of talent that was about to clash.

As the battle got underway, the 32-year-old Pires went through a series of ordinary scores before locking an excellent barrels to unleash his stylish manoeuvres, posting a 9.07 on the score-board. He immediately backed it up with a 5.33-point ride to move to a heat-total of 14.40 points.

“It was a tough heat,” Pires said. “The wind got really strong and the rain doesn’t help either. I knew it was going to be a tough heat because those guys are really complete surfers and they have the whole bag of tricks. I was just looking for a good nugget and a good barrel. I waited and waited and that wave came from heaven.”

The 24-year-old Smith did not have much luck with the waves during the early stages of the heat, but managed to collect a couple of scores in the six-point range in the final stages of the battle to finish with a heat-total of 12.76 points.

Bourez put on a rather lacklustre performance after struggling to adjust to the demanding surfing conditions at hand. Scoring a 4.43 and 3.07 off his best-two waves, the Tahiti charger finished with a heat-total of 7.50 points in third place.

Both Smith and Bourez were to surf again in the fifth round to try and earn their place in the Quarter-finals.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on May 22 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.