Malia Manuel and Sage Erickson qualify for Nike US Open of Surfing quarter-finals against all odds

Owing to a couple of huge upsets, Hawaii’s Malia Manuel and America’s Sage Erickson qualified for the quarter-finals at the Nike US Open of Surfing, the final stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Championship Tour, which went down at Huntington Beach in California, America, on Thursday, August 2.

Manuel got the better of Australia’s Tyler Wright in the first heat of Round 4 to successfully qualify for the quarter-finals while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.

The second heat saw the reigning five-time ASP Women’s World Champion bow out to Erickson, sending the latter into the quarter-finals.

With the top female surfers from around the globe squaring-off for a place in the quarter-finals, there was plenty of action in store for the huge crowd in attendance at the event site. The one-to-three foot waves breaking at the event site provided an ideal canvas for a series of enthralling contests.

The first heat pitted Manuel, current frontrunner for the women’s Rookie of the Year title, taking on last year Rookie of the Year Wright. With the pressure of elimination hanging over their heads, both the surfers were expected to push hard to earn a place in the quarter-finals.

As the heat got underway, the conditions became pretty testing, with scarce potent scoring opportunities. Manuel managed to find a 6.33-point ride and backed it up with a 4.77 in the final minutes of the heat to finish with a heat-total of 11.10 points.

Wright only managed to reach a two-wave total of 10.17 points, which included a 4.67 and 5.50-point ride, thus conceding victory to her Hawaiian rival.

“There were tons of waves before our heat and all of a sudden the horn rang and it was slow,” Manuel said. “It was nice with only two girls out and you’ve just got to go with your instincts. It would be a great honor to win the rookie of the year award and it’s been four or five years since my win here when I was 14 and I would love to win now that it’s a World Tour event.”

The second heat featured the biggest upsets of the event as Gilmore succumbed to Erickson. The local talent scored a 6.67 off her first business-wave early in the heat and went on to back it up with an additional 8.07-point ride, thus reaching a heat-total of 14.74 points.

Gilmore seemed to be struggling with her rhythm and only managed to reach a heat-total of 11.90 points, which included a 6.17 and 5.73-point ride, which resulted in her defeat and elimination from the competition.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on Dec 14 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.