Gabriel Medina and Julian Wilson step into the quarter-finals at Nike US Open of Surfing
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Australia’s Julian Wilson made their way into the semi-finals at the Nike US Open of Surfing, an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event, after clinching victory in their respective quarter-final heats that went
down at Huntington Beach in California, America, on Sunday, August 5.
Medina put on an outstanding performance to take down his countryperson Adriano de Souza in the third Quarter-final and thus securing his place in the semi-finals while removing the latter form the contention for the event title.
The fourth quarter-final saw Hawaii’s John John Florence failing to stand his ground against Wilson, consequently getting eliminated from the competition and sending the latter into the next stage of the competition.
With promising surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site, the huge crowd in attendance had very little reason to expect anything less than outstanding performances from some of the best surfing talent from around the globe.
Pitted against De Souza in the third Quarter-final, Medina showed a great deal of maturity and confidence as he navigated his way through the waves to grab the ones that offered the most juice. He left the spectators on shore stunned in awe as he pulled
off a perfect 10 ride halfway through the heat. Another 9.20-point ride took him to a heat-total of 19.20 points.
De Souza stared at a demanding task of surpassing the mammoth heat-total registered by his rival. Rather than giving up completely, he put on a determined fight and managed to earn a 6.70 and 9.43 off his best-two waves, thus finishing with a heat-total
of 16.13 points. The 3.07-point deficit however led to his elimination from the competition.
The battle for the last remaining spot in the semi-finals saw Wilson and Florence square-off in a one-on-one battle.
The contest turned out to be a low-scoring affair with both the surfers getting off to a slow start and failing to build momentum as the heat progressed.
Wilson eventually managed to grab the win after scoring a 4.67 and 3.77 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 8.44 points against his rival’s two-wave total of 8.17 points, which comprised of a 3.17 and 5.00-point ride.
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