Joel Parkinson defeats Mick Fanning to move into Billabong Rio Pro Final
Australia’s Joel Parkinson got the better of his fellow countryperson Mick Fanning in the first Semi-final of Billabong Rio Pro that went down at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 16.
The success in the Semi-finals served to take Parkinson into the Finals to take a shot at the event title.
Fanning, the two-time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Champion, had been in a deadly form since the start of the current season of the ASP World Title Series. He had kept the momentum going at Brazil, collecting a series of impressive wins
to gradually make his way through into the Semi-finals.
Parkinson, 2011 ASP World Runner-Up, had been nothing short of impressive over the last few days as well. The Australian phenom was being pitted as one of the strongest contenders for the coveted ASP World Title and he was truly doing justice to the hype
surrounding him. Taming the demanding barrelling conditions on offer at Barra da Tijuca, he made his way through into the Semi-final to face Fanning in a battle for a title shot.
As the first Semi-final got underway, Fanning got off to a solid start. Locking his first business-wave right at the beginning of the heat, he posted a 7.50 on the score-board. He soon backed it up with another 7.50-point ride to reach a heat-total of 15.00
points.
Parkinson responded with an equally spectacular performance, matching his rival blow-to-blow. The 31-year-old Australian surfer caught his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat to unload a series of exquisite manoeuvres, posting an 8.10
on the score-board. He kept the momentum going to add a 7.73 on the score-board, thus getting to a heat-total of 15.83 points. The score held up until the end to seal the fate of the battle in his favour, consequently eliminating Fanning from the competition.
“It’s always fun surfing against Joel and we started out bang-for-bang,” Fanning said during his post-heat interview. “That’s just the way it goes, but it’s always fun. Even though you lose, your friend’s in the Final, so you win. I would have liked to make
the Final but I just didn’t get the right waves and Joel [Parkinson] surfed great.”
Parkinson moved into the Final to face the winner of the second Semi-final that pitted Hawaii’s John John Florence against Australia’s Josh Kerr.
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