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Interesting times for those following who will be new the qualifiers in the 2013 WCT top 32. |
Charly Martin from Guadeloupe celebrates his win. Pic: ASP
FISTRAL BEACH, Newquay – England (Thursday, August 9, 2012) – Charly Martin (GLP) 22, has won the Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans in a dynamic final beating defending champion Romain Cloitre (REU) 23, 15.67 to 12.60 in peeling 2-3ft waves at Fistral beach. Antoine Delpero (FRA) 26, and Miku Uemura (HAW) 28, won the DAVIDOFF Cool Water Longboard Pro along meanwhile Alice Limoigne (REU) 15, claimed the 2012 ASP Europe Women’s Longboard title and Delpero claimed the men’s European title.
Martin had quietly grafted his way through the earlier rounds of the event to steamroll his way to the final taking out hot favourite and inform surfer Felipe Toledo (BRA) in the semis to eventually come from behind in the final with a combination of backhand snaps to earn an 8.50 out of 10 and grasp the 2012 Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans title.
“I am really happy. I am over the moon,” began Martin. “It was a quick comp but a long one surfing many times a day. I didn’t expect this and I came here hoping to pass some heats and now this. It has been a hard two years for me and I hope to come back like this with my first win on the Star tour and I hope not the last. I am going to try and build my seeding and try to be as high on the ranking as possible and hopefully qualify with this first step.”
Martin was responsible for ousting Felipe Toledo (BRA) who had posted a perfect 10-point ride in Round Five this morning. The win against all predictions boosted Martin full throttle into the grande finale.
“I was confident and I knew I could beat him. He (Toledo) has been surfing amazingly in the last event in the US Open and he is really good in the beach breaks. Where I come from there are only reef breaks so that is not my type of condition but I guess it went my way today and I got the best waves and surfed them well. Maybe the biggest heat and I am happy.”
Romain Cloitre (REU) had surfed brilliantly from the very first round of competition and was on track to follow in the footsteps of 3-times ASP World Champion Tom Curren to be the second surfer in the 31-year history of the event to win back-to-back titles. After holding a solid lead, Cloitre could only watch as Martin took the lead then quickly built on it with his backup score on a punchy right hander.
“I almost did back-to-back but Charly got a good one and he won the comp. I am really stoked for Charly and he deserves it as he surfed really well the whole comp. I am still really stoked about my second place for sure. I didn’t expect this at the beginning of the week so I hope to get some more results in Europe.”
Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans Final Results
1 – Charles Martin (GLP) 15.67
2 – Romain Cloitre (REU) 12.60
Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans Semi-final Results
Heat 1: Romain Cloitre (REU) 13.50 Def. Sebastien Zietz (HAW) 9.76
Heat 2: Charles Martin (GLP) 16.97 Def. Felipe Toledo (BRA) 15.67
Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans Quarter-final Results
Heat 1: Romain Cloitre (REU) 14.67 Def. Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 10.00
Heat 2: Sebastien Zietz (HAW) 15.00 Def. Glen Hall (IRL) 11.90
Heat 3: Felipe Toledo (BRA) 14.43 Def. Granger Larsen (HAW) 14.16
Heat 4: Charles Martin (GLP) 13.70 Def. Vincent Duvignac (FRA) 7.87
Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters in association with Vans Round Five Results
Heat 1: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 14.60, Glen Hall (IRL) 12.67, Tiago Camarao (BRA) 4.37
Heat 2: Sebastien Zietz (HAW) 14.27, Romain Cloitre (REU) 14.17, Medi Veminardi (REU) 9.93
Heat 3: Felipe Toledo (BRA) 19.57, Vincent Duvignac (FRA) 10.27, Halley Batista (BRA) 9.60
Heat 4: Charles Martin (GLP) 14.50, Granger Larsen (HAW) 13.83, Stuart Kennedy (AUS) 12.63
