Round 4 win carries Josh Kerr into Billabong Rio Pro Quarter-finals – Surfing News
Australia’s Josh Kerr emerged triumphant in the fourth heat of Billabong Rio Pro’s Round 4 that went down at the primary event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 15.
With his success in the fourth round, Kerr advanced straight into the Quarter-finals. Brazil’s Adriano de Souza finished second, while France’s Jeremy Flores rounded out the third place, consequently getting relegated to the fifth round.
The three-to-five foot barrels gracing the beach-break on the latest day of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour event offered plenty of scoring opportunities to the surfers. However, the weather did not turn out to be too favourable,
thus making it quite tough for the surfing elite to get their hands on a couple of solid scores.
The fourth heat of Round 4 saw Kerr take on De Souza and Flores in a three-man non-elimination battle for the Quarter-final spot. All three surfers had been exhibiting a formidable form over the last few days and were expected to put on quite a show to during
their Round 4 clash.
As the battle got underway, Kerr wasted very little time to get in rhythm with the surfing conditions at hand. The 28-year-old Australian locked his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post an 8.17 on the score-board. He soon went on
to back it up with a 9.67-point ride, thus finishing with a heat-total of 17.84 points.
“I saw Adriano’s wave go down and we were sitting in a different spot than everyone else,” Kerr said. “We were getting 9s and 10s and I feel bad for Adriano [de Souza]. I wasn’t expecting a little backdoor shootout and I’m stoked to get some good waves.”
De Souza picked up the best barrel of the heat, earning a perfect 10 off it, but failed to back it up with another good score. Scoring a 4.10 off his second business-wave, the 25-year-old Brazilian finished with a heat-total of 14.10 points.
The 24-year-old Flores finished in third place after putting on a pretty lacklustre performance for a two-wave total of 5.97 points.
Both De Souza and Flores were forced to take a trip to the fifth round to have another shot at earning their place in the Quarter-finals.
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