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Boardfolio.com >> ASP World Tour News >> Knox Dominates Round Two

Current world tour #4 Taj Burrow won the first heat of the morning to advance into round three of the Rip Curl Cup at Sunset Beach. Rip Curl Cup (Nov 24-Dec7) www.ripcurl.com Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) www.aspworldtour.com World Championship Tour (WCT) Press Release Knox Dominates Round Two Wednesday, December 3, 2003 (Sunset Beach, Haw) Californian Taylor Knox today dominated round two of the Rip Curl Cup. The US$250,000 World Championship Tournament (WCT) resumed this morning in good conditions, but organizers ultimately opted to hold off for bigger waves before running any further rounds of this year's penultimate event. Clean 6ft (2m) surf was on offer at Sunset, with some good barrels over the inside bowl section. Knox, the current ratings #7, dominated his clash against local Hawaiian wildcard Love Hodel and together they eliminated Australians Beau Emerton and Shane Powell. The 32-year-old locked in the highest combined scores of the tournament so far with an 8.5 and then 9.1 tube rides. For his Australian opponents however, the losses came as heavy blows to their WCT re-qualification campaigns. Both are sitting right on the fence to make it, and will now have to rely on strong finishes at the final pressurized event at Pipeline next week. "I seem to get my best results when I lose my first heats, so it history pertains to this contest I might do pretty well. I was looking for the double ups, the waves that almost break way outside, but then apex on the inside. Just trying to take off as deep as I could, as I figured I was either going to get a two or a 10, and nothing in between. I was hoping to get a good tube, and a good score. "It's one of those contests," he added, of the venue. "You could get one great wave and then get lost at sea. It is the 'Tour de France' of surfing contests, as you get a wave and then it can take you 10-minutes to get another one. Mistakes are costly here." Current #4 Taj Burrow (West Aus) overcame an initial lead by Rip Curl Cup Trials wildcard Manoa Drollet (Tah) to win this morning's opening heat. Together they eliminated fellow Australian Lee Winkler - who finished runner-up in last year's Rip Curl Cup, while their fourth opponent - Brazilian Armando Daltro - was forced to withdraw from the tournament a couple of days ago due to family reasons and returned home. "It's pretty tricky out there and you don't really know what goes down in a heat," explained Burrow. "You see guys take off and the wave barrel from behind, but you don't know if they're in it, or what happened, and you can't hear scores. I'm so stoked to make it. "For me the world title is a real long shot, so I don't feel too much pressure," he added. "I feel like I can be relaxed and just go out there and surf. I'm pretty sure I'd have to win both remaining events and the other guys would have to lose early, which is unlikely. I'm just trying to have fun, but I'm sure the other guys are feeling it." Current ratings #8 Michael Lowe (Windang) won an extremely hard heat over fellow Australian Luke Hitchings (Bronte). The pair advanced past equally strong Sunset surfers Pancho Sullivan (Haw) - one of the Rip Curl Cup main event wildcards - and Nathan Hedge (Narrabeen, Aus). Having finished runner-up in the 2001 tournament, Lowe is definitely considered one of the main contenders at the difficult venue, and will rely on his powerful backhand re-entries and committed approach. "I'm really happy to get through as it was a really hard heat and could have been a final," reasoned Lowe. "I got second here a couple of years ago behind Myles (Padaca), and always surf this break when I can. It seems to be working so far, so hopefully I can get a result." Darren O'Rafferty (Port Macquarie) emerged from a great tube to score an 8.67 and defeat fellow Australian Luke Egan (Gold Coast) this morning. Egan scrapped through the match ahead of Hawaiian wildcard Sean Moody and Brazilian Victor Ribas, after being involved with interference calls with both. Due to a shortage of good waves, tension was running high as all scrambled to try and ensure advancement. "Everyone was jostling for position out there," said O'Rafferty. "There was an interference early, and then another later on. Everyone is scratching to get through, so it's really tense. I just tried to stay as clear away from the hassling as possible. I was stoked to get my good one and score a barrel." Rip Curl Cup Trials winner Joel Centeio (Haw) survived another main event round by placing second to Phil MacDonald (Aus) in their heat with Shea Lopez (FL, USA) and Toby Martin (Aus). MacDonald dominated with some good barrels, but the 20-year-old also advanced ahead of his more experienced opponents. "It feels great," began Centeio. "That last heat was tough. There weren't many waves, but I'm just super stoked to be making heats in a WCT. This is my first one, so I hope I can keep it going. I'm just trying to do my own thing and hopefully it pays off." Live heat scores, video and audio commentary are on www.ripcurl.com during competition hours, with information available in four different languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The Vans Triple Crown Series features the world's top athletes competing in three championship events in each of the following sports: Skateboarding, Wakeboarding, Surfing, Snowboarding, BMX and Freestyle Motocross. The Series is made possible through the support of Vans, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Ford Trucks, Right Guard Xtreme Sport, Fox Sports Net, Surfing Magazine and NBC Sports. For full coverage of the Triple Crown of Surfing: www.triplecrownofsurfing.com

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