Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson prevail in Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Quarter-finals – Surfing News
Australia’s Mick Fanning and fellow countryperson Joel Parkinson made their way into the Semi-finals of Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, second stop of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series, after claiming top honours in their respective
Quarter-finals that went down at Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, on Friday, April 6.
Fanning got the better of his compatriot Kai Otton in the third Quarter-final to advance through into the Semi-finals, consequently bringing the competition to a premature end for his rival.
The second Quarter-final saw South Africa’s Jordy Smith succumb to the defending event champion Parkinson to find himself out of the contention for the event title while sending his rival into the next stage of the competition.
The crowd kept getting treated to a heavy dose of enthralling surfing action as the biggest names in surfing took each other on in man-on-man battles to move one step closer to the event title and thus the crucial ASP World Tour rating points that were critical
to their chances of getting the coveted ASP World Title.
With clean three-to-five waves breaking at the breaking site, the former two-time ASP World Champion Fanning took on Otton in the third Quarter-final.
The 30-year-old Fanning went to work early in the heat, locking his first business-wave to post an impressive 9.00 on the score-board and later backed it up with yet another 9.00-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 18.00 points.
Despite looking so impressive during the previous rounds, Otton failed to come up with a solid performance in his latest encounter and only managed to get to a heat-total of 10.27 points, which included a 4.17 and 6.10-point wave. This resulted in a comprehensive
victory for Fanning that sent him through into the next round of the competition.
The fourth Quarter-final featured an intense battle between the 30-year-old Parkinson and in-form Smith. Both the surfers had been making a solid impact in the sport for the last few years and their encounter was expected to go down to the wire.
Living up to the expectations, both the surfers fought tooth and nail during the course of the 30-minute battle. However, Parkinson eventually managed to walk away with the win after scoring a 7.77 and 7.67 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 15.44
against Smith’s 14.63 points, which comprised of a 7.13 and 7.50-point wave.
The victory confirm Parkinson’s place in the Semi-finals while putting an end to Smith’s excellent run at Bells Beach.
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