| Wiggolly Dantas conquers the Sooruz Lacanau Pro |
| Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:57 |
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Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) today claimed the Sooruz Lacanau Pro title downing fellow countryman Alejo Muniz in the 35-minute final to achieve his best result of the year and his second ASP Men’s Star-Series title in a closely fought final on a day which saw epic conditions for the grand finale to the 31st edition of the Sooruz Lacanau Pro an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) sanctioned event. Excellent surfing conditions continued for the final day of action at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Sooruz Lacanau Pro with clean off-shore winds and peaks in the 4-5ft (1.2m) range pumping in with the incoming tide. Event officials waited for the optimum swell window for the running of today’s heats resulting in an action packed display of futuristic power surfing for the large crowds lining the shores. Wiggolly Dantas 20, surfed a perfectly controlled final to lead from start to finish despite the efforts of Muniz to close the gap. Starting off solidly it was not until the halfway mark that Dantas hooked onto a long peeling right to lay down a series of powerful backhand turns to snatch a 7.83 and consolidate his lead and leave his opponent searching for a reply. “It is so amazing right now to surf against one of my best friends in the final and to win the contest and I just went out there to surf my heat and do my best and it all worked out and I am really stoked now.” “I was thinking about the waves a bit before the final and the rights were looking better and the lefts were closing out a little bit so I tried to concentrate on the rights and in the end I made a good result. You had to wait a little for the good waves and look for the set so that is what I did” All the Brazilian surfers were on hand to watch the finals go down and support their countrymen as they did battle in the final. Definitely a plus factor for the surfers the patriotic support added to the festivities of the Sooruz Lacanau Pro. “It is my best result this year and it was perfect because I had a lot of friends here and everybody is together and that is amazing to have all these guys supporting each other.” Alejo Muniz (BRA) 20, was the inform surfer during the earlier heats this morning laying down some of the biggest turns of the entire event and headed into the final as a clear favourite to take the title. Holding priority for a major part of the final Muniz was unlucky in not finding any waves to wall up down the line. Muniz tried in vain to get back into the race and required only a modest score to turn the tables however fell short leaving Dantas with a clear road to victory. Visibly upset with the result Muniz was content with his overall second place. “It was so hard out there and the waves were not coming to me and I tried to do my best but Wiggolly won in the end and I am happy for him. I really wanted to win this contest but I couldn’t in the end but it is still ok because my friend won so it is good for me too.” Richard Christie (NZL) 21, finished equal 3rd his best Men’s Star-Series result to date losing out to Wiggolly Dantas in a low scoring semi-final clash. Positioning himself on the southern bank in search of the left-handers Christie failed to find any scoring rides until the dying moments of the heat where he grinded out an excellent 8.27 out of a possible 10 however to no avail. “It is a good result for me and unfortunately I only got one good scoring wave in that heat but anyway Wiggolly deserved the win as he surfed really well that heat. I was doing the same as I have been doing the entire event going out on the south side and it has been fun but now as the tide is getting higher it got a little fatter than what I thought it was going to do so a little mistake on my part but I have learnt from it for sure.” Pedro Henrique (BRA) pulled off the barrel of the day with a deep clean front-side tube (8.5 out of 10) to oust Marc Lacomare (FRA) in the quarter-finals however he finished equal 3rd overall failing to overtake Muniz in the semi-finals. In his first major overseas event this year Henrique is out to return to the elite Dream Tour with renewed energy thanks to a new sponsor this year. “It was a hard heat to get a wave out there in the end,” explained Henrique. “I started with a good wave and Alejo too and then I needed to wait for a better wave but it never came. Alejo was so good in the water and he was always trying to improve his scores but I am very happy.” Returning after a year’s absence to the Sooruz Lacanau Pro Henrique comments on his aims here in Europe and for the remainder of the season. “Last year I couldn’t come but now I have a new sponsor and they have given me the support to try and make the WCT one more time. I am happy to be in France to do this contest and my year is just starting now so this is a nice result for me and I’m looking forward to the next ones and hopefully leave Europe up high on the rankings.” Marc Lacomare (FRA) finished equal fifth and has furthered his lead on the European Men’s Series rankings by almost 2,000 points over Glenn Hall (IRL) at the halfway stage of the 12 event series. Coming from a victory in the beginning of August in Newquay Lacomare has continued his excellent form and heads off to Galicia, Spain for next week’s event looking to do even better. For all results, videos, daily highlights, photos and news log-on to www.aspeurope.com SOORUZ LACANAU PRO FINAL RESULT SOORUZ LACANAU PRO SEMI-FINAL RESULTS SOORUZ LACANAU PRO QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS
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