Olamana Eleogram ends Mark Occhilupo’s impressive run to enter 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro Final
Hawaii’s Olamana Eleogram got the better of Australia’s Mark Occhilupo in the first Semi-final of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro that continued at Margaret River in Western Australia on Saturday, March 24.
Both Eleogram and Occhilupo had been exhibiting a formidable form since the very first round of the second Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event. The latter in particular had been giving the local crowd plenty of reasons to cheer their
lungs out by putting on superb performances despite not being a regular in surfing competitions anymore.
The 1999 ASP World Champion Occhilupo had claimed top honours at Telstra Drug Aware Pro twice and was looking to collect his third victory at Margaret River. He had been facing the best surfers from around the best for the past few days in big waves and
done exceptionally well to keep them at bay to gradually make his way into the Semi-finals.
As the 30-minute battle for a place in the Finals’ got underway, Eleogram wasted no time in getting down to business. Making an immediate charge, the Hawaiian surfer locked his first business-wave to draw first blood by posting a 5.50 on the score-board.
As the heat progressed, Eleogram went on to add another 6.17 points to his account to move to a heat-total of 11.67 points.
After looking in such an intimidating form for the past few days, Occhilupo failed to make much of an impact in the first Semi-final.
The Australian surfer scored a 5.17 off his first business-wave and only managed to add an additional 4.67 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 9.84 points. The surfing conditions seemed to have gotten the better of him, leaving him to finish
in a 1.83-point deficit and thus ending his excellent run.
“I have had the best time this week,” Occhilupo said afterwards. “In that Semi-final I had a pretty bad heat. A wave came at the end that I could have gotten the score on, but I fell. I’m going to go away and keep thinking about that. I’m still beating myself
up about it. By the time I get home it will have sunken in and I will be stoked with third. That competitive nature doesn’t ever leave you.”
With his impressive form in the first Semi-final, Eleogram advanced through into the Final of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro.
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