Adriano de Souza steps into Billabong Rio Pro Quarter-finals after defeating Taj Burrow in Round 5
Brazil’s Adriano de Souza got the better of Australia’s Taj Burrow in the fourth heat of Billabong Rio Pro’s Round 5 that went down at the beach-break of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 15.
With his win in the fifth round, De Souza successfully secured his place in the Quarter-finals. Burrow, on the other hand, was forced to make a premature exit from the competition after his second consecutive loss in less than 12 hours.
The surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event were quite challenging to say the least. The three-to-five foot barrels on offer did give the surfing elite ample opportunity to unleash their skills, but the winds and rain did not make the task an
easy one. As a result, the latest day of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour turned out to be full of intense battles as the heavyweights of surfing heavyweights competed for a place in the Quarter-finals.
The fourth heat of Round 5 pitted De Souza against Burrow in a battle for survival. Both the surfers had faltered during their previous heat and thus found themselves on the edge with one last chance to advance into the Quarter-finals.
As the battle got underway, De Souza did not get off to the best of starts. He went through a series of ordinary scores before stepping up in the final minutes of the heat. Locking his first heat with only a few minutes left in the heat, De Souza posted
6.40 on the score-board. He immediately backed it up with a 6.33-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 12.73 points.
“I was focused on the right, but I knew there was a little channel and I went over to the left,” De Souza said. “Luck is really going my way and I’m stoked. The waves were really hard and I’m stoked to make it through this heat.”
Burrow failed to come up with an effective response and only managed to score a 2.33 and 5.57 off his best-two waves to eventually finish with a heat-total of 7.90 points. The lacklustre performance led to his elimination from the competition while sending
De Souza into the Quarter-finals.
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