Chris Friend and Willian Cardoso power into Burton Toyota Pro Quarter-finals at Newcastle’s Surfest
Australia’s Chris Friend and Brazil’s Willian Cardoso walked away with top honours from their respective Round 5 (Round of 16) heats of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued to run at Merewether
Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Sunday, March 18.
Friend got the better of his fellow countryman Alexandre Chacon in the fifth heat, while Cardoso downed Hawaii’s Olamana Eleogram in the sixth heat of the fifth round to advance through into the next stage of the competition, the Quarter-finals.
The coveted winning prize and ASP rating points on offer at the latest ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) event had attracted a large number of world-class surfers from around the globe to take each other on in a series of thrilling battles. By the time the
event came down to the fifth round, the field had been trimmed down, retaining only the most in-form surfers, which was expected to make the showdowns even more gripping.
Pitted against Chacon in the fifth heat, Friend adapted exceptionally well to the four-foot waves on offer to put on an impressive performance. He got down to business as soon as the heat kicked-off, locking his first wave in the opening minutes to post
a 6.00 on the score-board. Struggling to find another good score to back up his good start, the Australian surfer eventually managed to locked his second business-wave in the dying minutes of the heat to add an additional 7.57 points to his account to get
to a heat-total of 13.57 points.
Chacon struggled to come up with a strong response to his rival’s performance and after a determined effort, was only able to reach a heat-total of 11.27 points, which included a 5.27 and 6.00-point wave.
The sixth heat of Round 5 featured a phenomenal performance by Cardoso as he eliminated Eleogram from the contention for the event title.
The Brazilian surfer continued his excellent run of form in the latest round. Opening his account with an impressive 8.17-point wave in the sixth heat, Cardoso went on to back it up with a 7.23-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 15.40 points.
Eleogram made an effort to challenge his rival’s control of the heat, but to no avail. The Hawaiian eventually had to surrender victory and thus the Quarter-final spot to Cardoso after finishing with a heat-total of 12.77 points, which included a 6.57 and
6.20-point wave.
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