Patrick Gudauskas, Nathan Yeomans and Alex Ribeiro prevail in Round 5 at Mr Price Pro Ballito
America’s Patrick Gudauskas, his fellow countryperson Nathan Yeomans and Brazil’s Alex Ribeiro successfully advanced through into the fifth round (Round of 16) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito after walking away
with top honours from their respective Round 4 (Round of 24) heats that went down at Willard Beach in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Friday, July 6.
The thrilling action continued at the primary event site as the top surfing talent from around the world continued to battle it out for survival. Surfers who had failed to clinch the win in their respective Round 3 heats were under immense pressure as they
got ready to square-off in Round 4 as another loss meant elimination from the competition. The powerful one-metre waves breaking at Willard Beach on the latest day sent plenty of potent opportunities for the surfers to unleash their technical tricks and post
a couple of good scores on the score-board.
The fourth heat saw Gudauskas take on Hawaii’s Olamana Eleogram in a man-on-man battle for a spot in the next round. Both the surfers had stumbled during their previous heat and thus were determined to collect a win in order to stay alive in the contention
for the event title.
As the battle got underway, Gudauskas got off to a patient start, but continued to build momentum as the heat progressed. Getting his hands on a couple of good waves, he finished with a heat-total of 14.27 points.
Eleogram responded with a two-wave total of 8.67 points, which consequently led to his elimination from the competition.
The fifth heat saw Yeomans and Brazil’s Peterson Crisanto square-off for in a battle for survival. The American surfer got off to a solid start and wasted very little time in getting control of the heat with a two-wave total of 13.87 points. Crisanto failed
to challenge his score after finishing with a heat-total of 11.74 points, getting removed from the race for the event title as a result.
The sixth heat saw Ribeiro get the better of Basque country’s Hodei Collazo. The Brazilian surfer registered a heat-total of 14.34 points against his rival’s 12.94 points, thus stepping into the next round while bringing the competition to a premature end
for his rival.
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