John John Florence defeats Julian Wilson to advance to Mr. Price Pro Ballito final
The second semi-final of Mr. Price Pro Ballito went down on Saturday, July 9, at the Surfers Beach in Ballito, South Africa.
After what turned out to be a real nail-biting contest, it was Hawaii’s John John Florence who managed to claim victory by defeating Australia’s Julian Wilson and advance to the final stage of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event.
With eight-to-ten foot waves still breaking at the main event site, there was hardly anything for the surfers to worry about as far as the conditions were concerned. Both Florence and Wilson had adjusted quite well to the huge waves and had come up with
excellent performances in the previous rounds, so their semi-final heat was not expected to be any different.
However, both the surfers did not have a smooth sailing during their latest heat, with both the surfers struggling quite evidently to cope with the conditions and facing some difficulty in riding the waves cleanly.
The 18-year-old Hawaiian had gotten off to an outstanding start, locking a huge barrel in the early stages of the heat to score an amazing 8.33 points off it. However, his search for another good score turned out to be quite lengthy.
ASP World No.24, Wilson, did not look at ease during the showdown either. He managed to score a 5.83 off his first good wave and added another 5.00 to his account after a while to move to a heat-total of 10.83 points.
ASP World 49, Florence, was running out of time fast and he needed to come up with a good score quickly in order to avoid elimination. Much to the joy of everyone supporting him, he was able to lock a wave in the final minutes of the heat to score 2.87 points
off it and reach a heat-total of 11.20 points. This allowed him to move 0.37 points ahead for his rival and clinch the win.
Wilson had been making a strong impact during the last five days of the event, consistently collecting convincing wins to advance further. However, Florence proved to be a bit too much for him to handle on Saturday though.
Talking to a reporter after the heat, the 22-year-old Wilson said, “I’m definitely happy with my result. That little bit of wind came up and it was hard to come out of the barrel. John John was by far the standout of this whole contest and that was pretty
much like surfing a final. He’s the one to beat at this event for sure and I hope he goes all the way.”
With Florence winning the second semi-final, the field for Mr. Price Pro Ballito final was complete. The final battle for the title was going to take place between him and America’s Patrick Gudauskas.
For updates on the final of Mr. Price Pro Ballito, stay tuned to bettor.com
Tags: