Josh Kerr prevails over Adriano de Souza to qualify for Billabong Rio Pro Semi-finals
Australia’s Josh Kerr was successful in securing his place in the Billabong Rio Pro Semi-finals after getting the better of Brazil’s Adriano de Souza in the fourth Quarter-final that went down at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, on Wednesday, May 16.
The outcome of the man-on-man bout came out as one of the biggest upset of the day, with a huge majority pitting De Souza as the favourite to walk away victorious from the Quarter-final.
The latest day of the third of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour event saw three-to-four foot barrels gracing the primary event site. While there was plenty of potential scoring opportunities on offer at Barra da
Tijuca on Wednesday, the surfing elite did not have an easy time capitalising on the chances and were pushed to their limits while searching for a couple of big scores during the heats.
The fourth Quarter-final of Billabong Rio Pro pitted Kerr against De Souza in a battle for the Semi-final slot. Both the surfers had been quite impressive over the last few days despite having to compete in challenging surfing conditions.
The crowd had huge expectations off De Souza, the defending event champion. The 25-year-old Brazilian had stumbled a few times during the previous rounds, but done exceptionally well to reach the Quarter-finals, where he had to face an in-form Kerr.
As the battle got underway, De Souza got off to an excellent start. Getting hold of a juicy wave in the opening minutes of the heat, the Brazilian sensation posted an 8.10 on the score-board. He immediately backed it up with a 6.17-point ride to get to a
heat-total of 14.27 points.
Kerr got off to a slow start, but eventually stepped up in the later stage of the heat to score a 7.67 off his first business-wave. Scoring a near-perfect 9.43 off his second business-wave, the Australian surfer finished with a heat-total of 17.10 points,
thus sealing the fate of the bout in his favour.
“I was definitely on the back foot,” Kerr commented on the heat. “Adriano [de Souza] had a 14 point heat total and I just relaxed and figured it’s a couple of 7s. I knew my airs could get me those scores. I was lucky to land that one at the end. I knew I
had to launch into the flats because there’s no soft landing, it just dumps. I was lucky to keep it steady under my feet.”
With his Quarter-final win, Kerr stepped into the Semi-finals to face Hawaii’s John John Florence in a battle for the title shot.
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