Last-minute win in Round 4 takes John John Florence into Billabong Rio Pro Quarter-finals
Hawaii’s John John Florence walked away with top honours from the third heat of Billabong Rio Pro’s Round 4 that went down at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 15.
With his success in the fourth round, Florence advanced straight into the Quarter-finals. Australia’s Julian Wilson finished third, while his compatriot Taj Burrow was forced to settle for third place. Both the surfers were consequently forced to take a
trip to the relegation Round 5 to have another shot at earning a place in the Quarter-finals.
Heading to Brazil for the third of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, there was hardly any surfer who expected to be spending the week taming barrels. The conditions not only took them by surprise, but also pushed
them on the back-foot with strong winds and inconsistent waves, making it a real tough job for the surfing heavyweights to post a couple of good scores on the score-board.
The third heat of Round 4 saw Florence square off with two of Australia’s formidable surfing talents, namely Wilson and Burrow. The latter in particular enjoys a reputation of being one of the best surfers in the world, sitting in the same league as 11-time
ASP World Champion Kelly Slater and two-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning. Wilson himself had ended the previous season of the elite tour as ASP World Rookie of the Year.
Pitted against such an intimidating competition, Florence definitely had his work cut out for him in Round 3. Known for his excellent barrel-riding skills, the 19-year-old Hawaiian surfer went through a series of ordinary scores before driving through a
long barrel to post a 9.63 to his account. In the final minutes of the heat, Florence needed to collect a big score in order to clinch victory. Rising to the occasion and getting aided by a stroke of luck, he found himself an 8.10-point ride with only 10 seconds
remaining in the battle. Finishing with a heat-total of 17.73 points, the Hawaiian surfer walked away with the win.
“It was Taj [Burrow] and Julian [Wilson] and those are two guys you never want to have in a heat,” Florence said. “It was windy when I first paddled out and I was trying to do airs and have fun with it. Then the wind stopped and I got the one in the middle
of the heat that was a pretty decent barrel. I finally got that last one and there was only 10 seconds left. I wasn’t even sure I had gotten the score when I hit the beach.”
Wilson almost got his hands on victory after sitting on a heat-total of 17.50 points, courtesy of a 9.83 and 7.67-point ride. However, an excellent last-minute effort from Florence pushed him to second place, thus sending him into the relegation round.
Burrow also found himself relegated to the fifth round after finishing with a heat-total of 13.20 points, which included a 5.83 and 7.37-point wave.
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