Nat Young and Filipe Toledo secure place in Burton Toyota Pro Quarter-finals – Surfing News
America’s Nat Young and Brazil’s Filipe Toledo claimed top honours in their Round 5 (Round of 16) heats of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle’s Surfest that resumed at Merewether Beach in New South Wales,
Australia, on Sunday, March 18.
Young created one of the biggest upsets of the event by defeating Australia’s Taj Burrow in the first heat, while Toledo got the better of Australia’s Adam Melling in the second heat of Round 5 to advance through into the Quarter-finals.
In contrast to the two-to-three foot waves that had been appearing at the event during the previous rounds of the competition, Sunday saw four-foot waves breaking at Merewether Point. The stage was set for a series of thrilling battles as the world’s best
surfers continued their pursuit of the coveted winning prize, which included a handsome cheque along with ASP rating points.
Pitted against Burrow, current No.1 in the race for the 2012 ASP World Title, the odds were definitely against Young. The 20-year-old Californian was having an excellent run of form over the last few days, but facing an immensely experienced and formidable
Burrow and that too in his home turf was far from an ideal situation.
As the heat got underway, Young went through a series of average-scores before locking his first business-wave to post a 5.33 on the score-board. He continued his determined search for another decent score and eventually managed to add an additional 6.67
points to his account, moving to a heat-total of 12.00 points.
Despite being the heat and crowd-favourite, Burrow was unable to make a solid impact in the heat. Scoring a 4.50 and 6.60 off his top-two waves, he finished with a heat-total of 11.10 points, consequently conceding victory to his young American rival to
send him through into the Quarter-finals.
The second heat saw Toledo unleash a phenomenal performance to get the better of Melling.
The Brazilian surfer got off to a modest start, but gradually built momentum to eventually unload a series of exquisite manoeuvres on his last two waves to post a 7.50 and an 8.00 on the score-board.
Melling failed to come up with an adequate response to his rival’s onslaught and eventually ended up surrendering victory after finishing with a heat-total of 11.23 points, which included a 5.40 and 5.83-point wave.
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