Australia’s Joel Parkinson put on a superb performance in the final of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star rated Burton Toyota Pro to claim a convincing victory over Brazil’s Alejo Muniz at the Merewether in Newcastle, Australia, on
Sunday, February 24, 2013.
With both the surfers making their impressive form evident throughout the course of the competition, the encounter between them was expected to be nothing short of a thriller.
However, the reigning ASP World Champion stamped his authority in the final and kept the foreigner on the back-foot to eventually claim a victory, much to the delight of the local crowd.
“It’s great to win this first event as the World Champion – I had an incredible end to last year’s season and I came into this event with a lot of confidence” said Parkinson. “It was sort of a warm-up event here but the field is fantastic and we surf these
events to win.
For someone who had enjoyed the spotlight for a substantial part of the previous year due to his incredible form, not much of Parkinson had been seen since he secured the biggest and most coveted honour in surfing, the ASP World Title.
However, his fans and surfing enthusiasts finally got a chance to see the champion in action at the Burton Toyota Pro.
Since the very first day, the Australian heavy-weight showed-off a dominant form, save for a small upset in his second heat of the competition, though he managed to recover well from that and take an authoritative position once again after that.
Muniz had been looking great during the course of the event as well, despite being at a bit of a disadvantage against the local talent who were far more familiar with the demanding conditions that he was.
However, he still managed to hold his own and eventually reach the final, where he met Parkinson.
The battle between the two surfers turned out to be an exciting one, though the Australian surfer stole the show with an 8.93 and a 6.50-point ride, thus registering a winning heat-total of 15.43 points.
Muniz, on the other hand, got off to a relatively slow start and only managed to score a 4.80 off his first business-wave. Despite showing a bit of desperation in the final minutes of the final, he was only able to add an additional 7.33 points to his account,
which just was not enough to challenge the standing of his rival. As a result, he was forced to concede victory to Parkinson.
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