Superb performance enables Adam Melling to down Matt Wilkinson in Round 2 of Billabong Rio Pro
Australia’s Adam Melling successfully advanced through into the third round of the Billabong Rio Pr, the third of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series, after getting the better of his fellow countryperson Matt
Wilkinson in the 12th heat of Round 2 that went down at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, May 14.
Melling’s victory over Wilkinson in the elimination round served to bringing the competition to a premature end for the latter.
“I was pretty happy with that one,” Melling said. “I snuck out of that first one that was a bit of a close out and on my way back out that other one doubled up real well and ran off. I was stoked to get that one on the way back out. It was sucking out off
of the bank pretty well. It feels really good to get good waves in a heat. They’re definitely out there.”
The stormy surfing conditions prevailing at the main event site on the latest day of the competition had kept the surfers from really opening up and made them work really hard to collect a couple of decent scores. The four-day rest after a day of surfing
in tricky one-to-two foot waves at the alternative event site of Arpoador did not prepare the surfers to enter the challenging four-to-six foot barrels that were on offer at Barra da Tijuca on Monday.
Where most of the surfers were seen struggling to hold their own in the demanding surfing conditions, Melling and Wilkinson put on an exquisite show for the crowd. Both the surfers were aided by a bit of luck as the sea brought in a number of promising potential
scoring opportunities. Both the surfers were determined to post big scores on the score-board in order to get their hands on victory and thus remain alive in contention for the event title.
As the 12th heat of Round 2 got underway, Wilkinson got off to a solid start, locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the battle to post a 6.83 on the score-board. After a long and determined search, he backed it up with a 7.43-point
ride to reach a heat-total of 14.26 points.
The 27-year-old Melling got off to a slow start, taking his time to adjust to the waves and waiting patiently for a good set before charging in. In the final minutes of the heat, his strategy paid off as he got hold of a 7.33 and outstanding 9.67-point wave
to finish with a decisive heat-total of 17.00 points, the highest two-wave total of the day.
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