Josh Kerr defeats Adam Melling to advance to Round 3 of Billabong Rio Pro – Surfing News
Australia’s Josh Kerr took down his fellow countryperson Adam Melling in the 10th heat of Billabong Rio Pro’s Round 3 which continued at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 15.
The fate of the man-on-man bout resulted in the confirmation of Kerr’s place in the fourth round, while Melling found the latest stop of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series coming to a premature end for him.
The fans had getting treated a heavy dose of satisfying surfing action throughout the day as the world’s best surfers battled it out for survival in their respective Round 3 heats in three-to-five foot barrels. The surfing conditions at hand served as an
ideal stage for the surfers to cut loose and show-off some high-performance surfing.
Doing quite well to stay alive in the competition despite the challenging conditions in which the previous two rounds of Billabong Rio Pro had taken place, Kerr and Melling now themselves facing each other in a battle for the Round 4 spot. The formidable
form shown by Kerr since the start of the season definitely tipped the scales in his favour, though Melling was more than capable of stealing the show on his day.
As the 10th heat of Round 3 got underway, Melling drew first blood by locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the battle to post a 4.33 on the score-board. After a long and desperate hunt, he caught his second business-wave only
to add another 3.00 points to his account.
The 28-year-old Kerr, on the other hand, got off to a confident start. Taking only a few minutes to become accustomed to the conditions, the Australian phenom charged towards a juicy wave to unload a series of exquisite tricks to earn a 7.40 from the judges.
The sea lost its generosity for a while, hardly sending any rippable waves in the direction of the surfers. In the dying minutes of the heat, Kerr caught his second business-wave to collect 3.33 points off it, thus reaching a heat-total of 10.73 points. The
heat-total turned out to be a decisive one, sealing the fate of the 30-minute bout in his favour and thus taking him through into the next round.
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