Nat Young and Glenn Hall move into semi-finals at Mr Price Pro Ballito
America’s Nat Young and Ireland’s Glenn Hall successfully advanced through into the semi-finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito that continued at the Willard Beach in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Sunday, July 8.
Young got the better of South Africa’s Jordy Smith in the third Quarter-final to secure his place in the next stage of the competition, while an excellent run by his intimidating rival to an end.
The fourth Quarter-final saw Hall barely edge past Australia’s Jack Stone to claim a semi-final spot, bringing the competition to a premature end for the latter.
The off-shore conditions on hand and solid 1.5 waves breaking at the primary event site promised to deliver a series of intense battles between some of the best surfers from around the globe. With only the most in-form surfers remaining in contention for
the event title, the contest was expected to be nothing short of thrilling.
The third Quarter-final saw Young take on Smith in a man-on-man battle for the semi-final spot. Both the surfers had been in an exceptional form since the start of the competition. However, Smith was a huge favourite during the battle considering his experience
and the fact that he was competing in his own backyard.
As the heat got underway, the South African surfer got off to a promising start. He collected a couple of decent wave-scores to get to a heat-total of 12.00 points.
Despite being much younger than his highly-experienced rival, Young proved wiser beyond his years. He put on a superb performance to post a couple of impressive scores on the score-board to eventually finish with a heat-total of 15.00 points, thus moving
through into the next round.
The fourth heat turned out to be an intense affair as both Hall and Freestone fought tooth-and-nail to get their hands on the semi-finals’ spot. As the dust settled, the Irish surfer stood victorious with a heat-total of 10.44 points against his rival’s
9.90 points. The narrow win served to carry him closer to a shot at the title, while removing Freestone from the competition.
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