Blake Thornton and Julian Wilson remain triumphant in Round 3 of Mr. Price Pro Ballito
The seventh Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year, Mr. Price Pro Ballito continued to deliver a heavy dose of intense surfing action with the seventh and eighth heat of Round of 24 (Round 3) at Surfers Beach in Ballito, South
Africa, on Thursday, July 7.
In the seventh heat, Australia’s Blake Thornton emerged triumphant, defeating French Maxime Huscenot to advance to the next round and put his rival out of the race for the event title.
Australia’s Julian Wilson continued to assert his excellent form by dominating South Africa’s Brendon Gibbens to go through to the next round and finish his rival’s current ASP Prime event campaign.
Both Thornton and Huscenot had made solid impacts during the first two rounds of the event and their clash was expected to be highly intense. However, nobody was expecting to see the Australian lock the biggest barrel of the day to throw down a combination
of sensational manoeuvres and earn a near-perfect score of 9.63 out of possible 10.00. The wave left both the crowd and judges in complete awe.
Huscenot attempted to shake off some pressure, but only managed to get a 6.17 off his first wave, still well behind the Australian’s score. However, to his relief, Thornton seemed to have run out of luck and was struggling to find another wave. To make matters
worse, the Australian ended up breaking his surfboard, his third in the event so far.
In the final moments of the heat, Thornton managed to collect 2.80 off a wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.43 points and leaving the French in need of 6.27 points for victory. Even with an ample opportunity at hand, Huscenot failed to capitalise on
it and ended up with a second-wave score of 4.17, finishing in a 2.09-point deficit and consequently surrendering victory to his Australian rival.
During his post-heat interview, Thornton said, “I paddled out a lot further down than normal and when the heat started that thing just stood up and I was lucky to come out. That was the only good part of the heat because I couldn’t find another wave and
then I broke another board.”
The next heat turned out to be a one man show, with Australia’s Julian Wilson stealing the show once again with his excellent adjustment to the conditions and outstanding performance.
He set things in motion with a sensational 8.50-point wave early in the heat and later added a 3.60 to his account, finishing with a two-wave total of 12.10 points. Even with the home advantage, Gibbens lost by a margin of 8.31 points after merely scoring
1.20 and 3.80 off his two best waves during the heat. As a result of this poor performance on his part, the South African was eliminated from the competition.
For more updates on Round 3 of Mr. Price Pro Ballito, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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