Jeremy Flores edges past Daniel Ross in Round 5 of Billabong Rio Pro
France’s Jeremy Flores prevailed over Australia’s Daniel Ross in the second heat of Men’s Billabong Rio Pro, Round 5 that went down at the beach-break of Barra Da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, May 20.
Due to the difficult conditions prevailing at the event site, the heat turned out to be a low scoring one as the surfers struggled to locate good waves. The task was proving to be quite tough as there were only two-to-three foot waves breaking at the beach.
Rio de Janeiro has earned a reputation of being one of the best surfing locations in the world, but unfortunately, it had failed to live up to the reputation over the last week.
Even though mother nature refused to show any kindness, Flores and Ross still managed to lock on to a couple of relatively good waves to showcase their skills on the surfboard. The resulting scores were not something to write home about, though they did
help in determining the winner.
Flores utilised his two waves to earn a total score of 12.60. His Australian rival put up a determined fight, but was forced to surrender after ending up short by 1.03 points.
After witnessing the Frenchman’s performance in the fourth round, where he had lost to ASP World No. 2 Joel Parkinson, by a difference of 0.30, he was clearly the favourite to triumph in the fifth round when pitted against Ross.
The odds seemed to be against Ross because of his performance in the fourth round while facing Australia’s Taj Burrow and America’s Damien Hobgood. Not only had he failed to put up a strong fight, he had ended up at the bottom with the lowest score. This
came as a great surprise as he had remained so impressive in the first and third round of the competition. Unfortunately for him, he failed to find his rhythm in the fifth round as well and ended up paying dearly for it.
Owing to his latest defeat, the Australian is out of the contention for Men’s Billabong Rio Pro title, while the French surfer has booked a spot for himself in the quarter-finals.
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