Adriano carves out win
Brazilian on top of world
THREE, two, one.
Brazil’s Adriano de Souza has completed a dominant Australian leg of the World Surf Tour with victory yesterday in the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia.
After a semi-final finish in the season-opening Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast and then coming runner-up to Mick Fanning at Bells Beach, de Souza went one better to claim his fifth world tour event title.
The 28-year-old, who began his day by eliminating local hope Taj Burrow in the semis, proved too strong for American John John Florence in clean conditions at Main Break.
De Souza scored an 8.93 and an 8.60 with his first two waves of the 40-minute final with the combined 17.53 out of 20, enough to hold off Florence, who nailed the highestscoring wave of the final with a 9.00 but could only post a 16.87 two-wave score. The victory means de Souza will head to next month’s Rio Pro event in Brazil as the world’s No.1, over 7500 points clear of three-time world champion Fanning with another Brazilian, Filipe Toledo, in third position.
After narrowly missing out to Fanning on a countback at Bells Beach, an emotional de Souza was understandably delighted to have picked up his first event win of the season.
“Just so happy. I came really motivated because after Bells, a tie in the final and I couldn’t win the thing,” he said.
“I’m really motivated this year and I feel I have to keep improving, keep up the hard work and it will definitely pay off.”
Sunshine Coast product Julian Wilson is the only other Australian in the top five of the rankings heading to Brazil, with the Gold Coast runner-up fourth with 14,950 points.
The Rio Pro is scheduled to start on May 11.