PLAYA DE PANTIN, Galicia – Spain (Sunday, September 16, 2012) - Germany’s Marlon Lipke has won the 2012 ASP 3-Star Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro in a low scoring final at Playa de Pantin over Joan Duru, Bino Lopes and Ty Watson. After yesterday’s completion of the Women’s competition, the Round of 32 of the Men’s re-started this morning in pumping 4-5Ft surf, culminating with the final dominated by Lipke.
Marlon Lipke (DEU) 28, was the first surfer to open fire in the final, starting on a big lefthander out the back and milking it all the way into the shorebreak with a succession of radical turns to earn an 8.33 out of 10 and take the heat lead. In a slow final that only saw one bigger set of waves offered to the four competitors, Lipke seized the opportunity and found the only high scoring ride, clinching the Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro Title in the process.
“I’m just so happy at this stage of my career to have another win, two this year after the 3-Star in Vendee.” Lipke stated. “You know sometimes things happen in life which kind of put your mind right and put things in perspective and sometimes you fight harder for things, that’s what I did here so I’m super happy to come out with the win!”
After surfing and winning four heats today, Lipke looked the sharpest in the final heat of the event, despite suffering a strong pain due to a recurring shoulder injury. Regularly scoring in the excellent range, Lipke has shown consistence through the earlier rounds as well and clinches a logical victory on day 5 of the Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro.
“Four heats and long paddles always, I was getting cramps in my arms at the end, but I fought through it. I think I know how to win a contest, I kept calm in the end and wanted the first place real bad. My goal is to try and do the same in Lanzarote at the end of the season!”
Following another win in Vendee at the start of the European season, and more recently an excellent fith place in the ASP 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz, Lipke moves into pole position on the ASP Europe Rankings and sits with a strong lead over closest competitor Charles Martin (GLP). The 2004 European Junior Champion will have to secure a good result in Lanzarote next month to claim his maiden Regional Open Title.
“It’s always stepping stones, I just want to build my comfort zone and then attack again! I’ve got good boards and my head is in the right place. I figured it was a slow heat and I had a 5 under my belt and just controlled the peak from there. The other guys paddled inside and I got lucky the bomb came then. I played tactics there and it worked out. I think many people when they come to a final, they kind of crumble, but once you know how to do it you can do it again and yeah experience played a big role in the end I think.”
Joan Duru (FRA) 23, had a stellar run through the entire Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro, netting the second highest single wave score of the event, an excellent 9.33 in his quarter-final bout this afternoon but wasn’t able to keep his momentum going into the final 30-minute exchange today, placing second behind Lipke.
“It was cool, but unfortunately I didn’t find the right waves. Marlon got the best two so I couldn’t do much but I fell a couple times so he deserves it! We’ve had excellent waves all week, and unfortunately I broke my best board in my second to last heat so I had to surf a back-up and it wasn’t quite as good but I had a good time here overall! I’m still super happy with that second place!”
Ranked 44th on the ASP World Rankings before Pantin, Duru has shown once again the strengths of his surfing repertoire in solid surf and adds another strong result in 2012 after placing second in Jeffrey’s Bay this summer, fifth in the Brazilian Prime event of Fernando do Noronha and 9th in Zarautz recently.
Bino Lopes (BRA) 24, clinched third place today, choosing to stay in the inside witnessing the absence of decent sets during the final. He found a smaller righthander he exploited well, unfortunately not making the last huge re-entry he attempted that could have given him the score needed to move into first place.
“The final was very hard,” Lopes said. “I didn’t get any good waves, and I think it was hard for everyone to stay focused in the heat but I’m so happy to have come here and I hope next year I’ll get an even better result!”
The Brazilian, who has only started his World Tour campaign internationally, claims the best result of his young career and proves he has what it takes to make the final in major events after defeating Top Seeds on his way to the last heat of this competition. Sitting at an average 156th position on the World Rankings, Lopes eyes the Top 100 next season and will be one to follow in the near future.
“This year I had a contusion at my leg, and I missed a couple of events, and this is for sure my best result so far! I’m going back to Brazil for one event and I’ll come back to Europe for the final competition in Lanzarote. Next year I’m planning on surfing the whole International tour and I’m hoping to get results like this more often!”
Ty Watson (AUS) 22, finished fourth in the 2012 Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro and couldn’t really showcase the excellent surfing he has been displaying this whole week. Watson was unable to find good enough opportunities in the thirty minutes of his final appearance in Galicia.
“There’s not much I could do, I only got two closeouts, I just couldn’t get a wave, really. There was that one wave that Marlon got and congratulation’s to him, he surfed it well. He surfed the whole event well, I’ve been watching his heats. I suppose everyone will say the same, we were all grovelling and he got that one wave which made the difference.”
After an encouraging 17th place in the Azores last week, the young Australian stepped it up in Pantin, outing several strong opponents to secure his ticket for the final today. The talented regular-footer who has been travelling with his brother Jordin, will have another occasion in a few weeks in Canary Islands to better his fourth place result.
“It’s been really fun, the waves have been amazing and I’ll definitely be back here this time next year! I needed a good result here to get up there on the rankings, probably a win here, but this is better than getting knocked out first round so I’ll take it and carry on from here. Making the finals is always good for confidence and I’ll take it to the Canary Islands for my next event!”
The 2012 Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro was scheduled from September 12-16, 2012 in Playa de Pantin, Galicia. For all results, photos, video highlights, press releases and LIVE webcast, log on to pantin.aspeurope.com.
The Cabreiroa Pantin Classic Pro is made possible with the support of the following event partners: Estrella Galicia, Cabreiroa, MINI, Ferrol, Diputacion de A Coruna, Concello de Ferrol, Concello de Valdovino, Xunta de Galicia, Deporte Galego, Ferrol Turismo, Concello de Cedeira, Concello de Neda, Kentes, Gadis, Pago, McDonald’s, PSVITA, Intermax, Nilox, Federacion Galega de Surf e bodyboard, Oceans Surf Club, Wahrld, Vazva.
CABREIROA PANTIN CLASSIC PRO MEN’S FINAL RESULTS:
1 - Marlon Lipke (DEU) 13.66 2 - Joan Duru (FRA) 9.04 3 - Bino Lopes (BRA) 8.57 4 - Ty Watson (AUS) 6.76
CABREIROA PANTIN CLASSIC PRO MEN’S SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:
Heat 1: Bino Lopes (BRA) 15.37, Joan Duru (FRA) 12.13, Connor O’Leary (AUS) 10.70, Steven Pierson (PYF) 10.47 Heat 2: Marlon Lipke (DEU) 15.50, Ty Watson (AUS) 14.20, Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY) 13.10, Nathan Hedge (AUS) 9.27
CABREIROA PANTIN CLASSIC PRO MEN’S QUARTER-FINALS RESULTS:
Heat 1: Joan Duru (FRA) 16.00, Bino Lopes (BRA) 13.96, Medi Veminardi (REU) 11.70, Nic Von Rupp (DEU) 9.33 Heat 2: Connor O’Leary (AUS) 15.06, Steven Pierson (PYF) 11.57, Adrien Valero (FRA) 10.60, Vincent Duvignac (FRA) 10.13 Heat 3: Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY) 14.16, Ty Watson (AUS) 14.10, Charles Martin (GLP) 12.87, Teppei Tajima (JPN) 9.00 Heat 4: Marlon Lipke (DEU) 13.43, Nathan Hedge (AUS) 11.80, Adrien Toyon (FRA) 11.77, Noah Erickson (USA) 6.60
CABREIROA PANTIN CLASSIC PRO MEN’S ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Nic Von Rupp (DEU) 11.10, Connor O’Leary (AUS) 10.83, Manuel Selman (CHL) 7.80, Jordin Watson (AUS) 7.70 Heat 2: Medi Veminardi (REU) 14.33, Steven Pierson (PYF) 13.00, Thomas Woods (AUS) 11.46, Francisco Alves (PRT) 8.53 Heat 3: Adrien Valero (FRA) 14.17, Bino Lopes (BRA) 11.10, Messias Felix (BRA) 9.54, Nobuyuki Osawa (JPN) 6.93 Heat 4: Vincent Duvignac (FRA) 15.54, Joan Duru (FRA) 13.17, Jatyr Berasaluce (EUK) 4.77, Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) 4.60 Heat 5: Ty Watson (AUS) 14.53, Noah Erickson (USA) 10.43, Alan Donato (BRA) 9.23, Carlo Zapata (PER) 8.54 Heat 6: Charles Martin (GLP) 12.83, Nathan Hedge (AUS) 12.66, Leonardo Neves (BRA) 10.40, David Van Zyl (ZAF) 9.26 Heat 7: Adrien Toyon (FRA) 12.67, Teppei Tajima (JPN) 12.60, David Do Carmo (BRA) 10.50, Eneko Acero (EUK) 7.36 Heat 8: Marlon Lipke (DEU) 14.33, Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY) 14.10, Leandro Usuna (ARG) 13.93, Ian Gouveia (BRA) 9.17
