Ryan Callinan and Morgan Cibilic claimed consecutive heat victories to advance to the round of 24 at the Ericeira Pro in Portugal.
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The Merewether surfers followed up opening-round wins with victories in their round-of-48 heats on day three of the Challenger Series (CS) event on Tuesday night (AEDT).
Surfing at high tide in one-to-four foot waves, Callinan scored a 13.43 two-wave total to claim victory over countryman Dylan Moffat (10.64), Brazilian Peterson Crisanto (9.30) and Marco Giorgi (5.50) of Uruguay.
The goofy-footer led for most of the heat after posting scores of 5.20 and 6.33 on his first two waves, which on their own would have been enough for victory, and despite making a rare error in giving up priority midway through the heat, he finished with a 7.20 on the buzzer to improve his score.
"I was lucky enough to get those two back-to-back at the start and it kind of set me up," he said. "I made a big mistake with priority in the middle, but it just barely broke again.
"I ended up having it again at the end for my last wave. Someone's got to get through those ones so I'm pretty stoked it was me."
Morgan Cibilic, who sat 19th in the CS rankings coming into the event and needs a decent result to keep his hopes of re-qualifying for next year's Championship Tour alive, won his heat with a total score of 11.40.
The 22-year-old surfed only three waves, but beat Lucas Silveira (10.70), Shun Marakami, (10.37) and Australian Mikey McDonagh (8.44). Heats drop to three surfers in the round of 24, where Cibilic faces Leonardo Fioravanti and Ethan Osborne. Callinan is up against Alan Clelaand and Deivid Silva.
Avoca Beach product Macy Callaghan scored 8.33 for one of the best women's rides of the day to claim victory with a total of 13.33 in the last of the women's round-of-64 heats.
The event is due to resume at about 6pm Wednesday night (AEDT).
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