Julian Wilson and Blake Thornton advance to Round 2 of Mr. Price Pro Ballito
Round of 96 (Round 1) of Mr. Price Pro Ballito continued with the 15th and 16th heat on Surfers Beach in Ballito, South Africa, on Tuesday, July 5th.
Heat 15 saw Australia’s Julian Wilson stamp his authority over his compatriots, Stu Kennedy and Mitchel Coleborn, as well as France’s Tim Boal, to advance to the next round. Kennedy managed to secure the runner-up place to remain safe from elimination, while
Boal and Coleborn were ejected from the event title race after rounding out third and fourth position.
Australia’s Blake Thornton walked away from heat 16 with top honours, while South Africa’s Brendon Gibbens finished in second place to move further in the competition. France’s Marc Lacomare and Brazil’s Jadson Andre finished in third and fourth position
respectively.
Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World No. 30, Wilson adapted quite remarkably to the changing conditions at the primary event site during the 15th heat, opting to go for blazing top to bottom surfing instead of aerials.
Looking quite comfortable in the sea, he surfed numerous waves in search for a good score. Late in the heat, he eventually caught his highest-scoring wave, earning 7.60 points off it, to move ahead on the scoreboard. Adding an additional 6.47 points to his
account, he sailed to victory with a heat-total of 14.07 points.
Talking to a reporter after the heat, Wilson said, “The wind was perfect for airs in the heat before mine but conditions changed in my heat, so I had to change my strategy. Mitch and Stuart are really good surfers so I wanted to go out there and find the
best waves. I was really nervous for some reason, so it was good to wash the nerves out.”
Kennedy scored a 6.00 off his first wave early in the heat and soon collected 6.77 points off his second wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.77 points and follow Wilson into the next round.
Boal’s two-wave total of 11.14 and Coleborn’s 8.10 failed to meet the standards that had been set by the top-two surfers in the heat and were put out of title contention.
Thornton stole the show in the next heat with his passionate surfing. Right at the beginning of the heat, he caught a wave to pull off a string of impressive manoeuvres and collected 7.67 for the effort. Adding a 5.50 to his score later on, he finished with
a heat-total of 13.17 points. The score remained unbeatable and carried him off to victory.
The local star, Gibbens, exhibited good form as well during the heat and successfully confirmed his place in the next round after scoring 4.67 and 6.17 points off his two best waves to get hold of the runner-up place.
Lacomare and Andre seemed out of rhythm during the heat, managing to secure a heat-total of 6.67 and 3.97 respectively. This lack of form cost them dearly, bringing their latest ASP Prime event campaign to a premature end.
For more updates on Round of Mr. Price Pro Ballito, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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