Mitch Crews and Mason Ho advance to quarter-finals at Mr Price Pro Ballito – Surfing news
Australia’s Mitch Crews and Hawaii’s Mason Ho successfully earned their place in the quarter-finals at the third of eight events on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime series, Mr Price Pro Ballito, after claiming top honours in their respective
Round 5 (Round of 16) heats that went down at the main event site of Ballito, South Africa, on Saturday, July 6, 2013.
Both the surfers exhibited an impressive form during their latest encounter, evidently determined to make the most of the opportunity available to them to get their hands on the coveted ASP ranking points and a hefty share of the prize purse that was on
offer.
The event organisers were forced to cut the proceedings short during the previous day of competition, after the conditions at Ballito had deteriorated significantly. On Saturday, however, the surf was back to looking great, thus allowing the resumption of
the action with the remaining Round 5 heats.
A huge crowd was in attendance at the main event site and understandably so, as the event was expected to wrap up and winner to raise the trophy before sunset.
After doing well in the previous rounds of Mr Price Pro Ballito, Crews found himself pitted against Brazil’s Krystian Kymerson in the seventh heat of Round 5. The latter had been in a fine form since his arrival at Ballito as well and was expected to put
up a determined fight to try and extend his life in the contention for the event title.
As the battle got underway, both the surfers got off to a slow start, clearly having trouble in adjusting to the waves.
Crews eventually managed to find his rhythm and collected a couple of decent waves to eventually finish with a heat-total of 12.17 points.
Kymerson continued to struggle and eventually had to settle for a two-wave total of 10.74 points. The score was inadequate under the given circumstances and consequently led to his elimination from the competition.
The battle for the last remaining spot in the quarter-finals took place between Ho and Brazil’s Filipe Toledo. The day had not started off great for the Brazilians, but Toledo was hoping to change that.
Since the moment the battle got underway, both the Hawaiian and Brazilian surfer pushed hard for a pair of decent scores.
Toledo grabbed a couple of good waves and consequently got to a heat-total of 14.26 points. The effort was nothing short of impressive, but it proved to be insufficient as Ho concluded the heat on a two-wave total of 14.67 points, thus walking away with
the win.
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