John John Florence downs Gabriel Medina to move into Billabong Pro Tahiti semi-finals
Hawaii’s John John Florence put on a superb performance to get the better of Brazil’s Gabriel Medina in the fourth Quarter-final at Billabong Pro Tahiti, the latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, which
went down at Teahupo’o in Taiarapu, Tahiti, on Monday, August 27.
The battle turned out to be pretty one sided, with the Brazilian surfer failing to offer any solid challenge to Florence.
There was plenty of hype surrounding the clash between two of surfing’s most promising rising stars as there was very little to choose between them.
Competing in his debut elite tour, Florence had plenty to prove to the world. He had managed to earn himself quite a bit of reputation through his outstanding performances in ASP Prime and star events, but it remained to be seen how well he performs while
going against the best in the sport.
Medina was not new to the pressure of going against the elite ASP surfers at the World Championship Tour stage, as he had entered the contention for the prestigious title following the mid-year cut last season. He managed to make a powerful impact despite
only getting a few opportunities to surf against the surfing heavy-weights, but this time he found himself with an entire season to prove his mettle. So far, he had struggled to do justice to the hype that surrounded him prior to the start of the season.
Pitted against each other in a man-on-man quarter-final bout for the semi-final spot, both Florence and Medina had all the reason to push themselves beyond limit.
As the contest got underway, Florence wasted no time to stamp his authority in the heat. He got hold off the first juicy wave that appeared and utilised it to unleash a series of powerful manuevers, thus posting a 7.50 on the score-board. Keeping the momentum
going, he added an additional 8.67 points to his account, thus moving to a heat-total of 16.17 points.
Medina struggled to find his rhythm through the course of the battle, scoring a mere 2.50 and 1.67 off his best-two waves to finish with a mediocre heat-total of 4.17 points. As a result, he was eliminated from the competition.
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