Kelly Slater claims victory over Julian Wilson to move into Volcom Fiji Pro semi-finals – Surfing News
America’s Kelly Slater continued his excellent run at Volcom Fiji Pro, adding Australia’s Julian Wilson to his list of victims after claiming top honours in the third Quarter-final that went down at the main venue of Cloudbreak in Tavarua, Fiji, on Monday,
June 11.
It turned out to be a one-sided affair, with the reigning Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Champion putting on a superb performance to remain on top of his young rival until the end, thus advancing into the next stage of the competition,
the semi-finals.
The latest day of the competition saw high-performance four-to-six foot waves, offering plenty of potent scoring opportunities. The day promised to be full of enthralling performances. The world’s best surfers were expected to push their limits as they took
each other on to move closer to the event title. A good result at the latest stop of the elite tour was crucial for the surfers as they continued their campaign for the coveted ASP World Title, the most prestigious honours in the sport.
The third Quarter-final saw Slater and Wilson face-off in a man-a-man battle for the semi-final slot. While Wilson had been exhibiting a solid form for quite some time now and adapted quite nicely to the waves in Fiji, the scales were naturally tipping in
favour of Slater. The 40-year-old 11-time ASP World Champion had been one of the most dominating surfers in history and still remained as one of the strongest contenders for the ASP World Title.
As the third Quarter-final got underway, Slater asserted his dominance over his rival in the opening minutes of the heat. He moved in position to grab a juicy wave early in the battle and pulled off a string of tricks on it to earn an 8.67 on the score-boar.
After going through a series of average-wave scores, he collected a near-perfect 9.90-point ride in the dying minutes of the heat to reach a heat-total of 18.57 points.
Wilson needed to come up with something special to have any chance of beating his intimidating rival. However, he failed to rise up to the challenge and only managed to score a 6.83 and 0.93 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 7.76 points.
As a result he was forced to surrender victory to his rival, sending him through into the next stage of the competition.
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