Jordin Watson defeats Matt Banting to secure place in Championship Moves Open Final
The final day of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 1-Star Championship Moves Open kicked off on Monday, January 9, at the Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, with the first Semi-final, pitting Australia’s Jordin Watson against his compatriot Matt Banting in a battle for a spot in the Final.
The showdown between the two surfers was expected to be a thrilling affair considering the sort of form both the Australians had exhibited in the previous rounds of the competition. However, Banting failed to do justice to the hype that surrounded the face-off and struggled to offer a decent challenge to his rival, Watson, during the heat. As a result, Watson advanced through into the Final with a really impressive and compressive victory, while Banting got removed from the contention for the event title.
With the threatening form that Watson had been displaying during the initial rounds of the competition, it seemed as if Watson had no intention of letting anything stand between him and the coveted event title. Despite pitted against some of the best surfing talent from Australia, along with a handful of foreigners, the South Coast-based surfer held his own and survived one challenge after another to steadily make his way into the Semi-finals.
Facing Watson in the first Semi-final was Banting, another surfer who had shown intimidating form during the previous rounds. The New South Wales-based surfer was not expected to go down without putting up a strong fight.
As the heat got underway, Banting drew first blood with a 6.75-point wave to take an early advantage in the man-on-man battle. However, his joy was short-lived as Watson soon took the lead by pulling off a series of quick turns off his first business wave to score 7.75 points.
Watson extended his lead over his rival even further by unloading a series of spectacular tricks on his second wave to earn a 9.00 for the effort, thus moving to a heat-total of 16.75 points.
The second-wave score by Watson had pretty much decided the fate of the Semi-final as Banting needed to find not one, but two really good scores to have a chance at taking the win. However, the latter was not looking too comfortable in the four-foot waves and only managed to add another 5.25 points to his account, finishing with a heat-total of 12.00 points and consequently conceding a comprehensive victory to Watson.
The victory carried Watson through into the Final, where he was to face either Japan’s Hiroto Arai or Tahiti’s Enrique Ariitu for the coveted event title.
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