ASP concedes Slater not world champion just yet
In a photo provided by the Association of Surfing Professionals, Kelly Slater, of Coco Beach, Fla., holds his ASP world title trophy after clinching his 11th world title, at the Rip Curl Pro Search at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Slater clinched the title with his advancement out of round three, defeating Daniel Ross. (AP Photo/Association of Surfing Professionals, Kirstin Scholtz)
In this photo made Nov. 2, 2011, Kelly Slater holds up the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals Men's World Title trophy after winning his third round heat at the Rip Curl Pro Search 2011 surfing contest at Ocean Beach, in San Francisco, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/George Nikitin)
Kelly Slater surfs under the curl at the Rip Curl Pro Search surf contest en route to winning the third round, thereby clinching his 11th ASP season title, at Ocean Beach on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/George Nikitin)
A calculation error in the ranking system resulted in Kelly Slater being awarded his 11th Association of Surfing Professionals world title prematurely on Wednesday.
In a story on the ASP website, world tour manager Renato Hickle explained the mistake and apologized for the error.
"Our rankings system is designed to split tie-breaks based off of seed points," Hickel said today in an ASP web story. "Kelly and Owen (Wright) tied at best nine of 11 results, so we went to best eight of 11 results and the system gave it to Kelly based off his higher seed position.
"We were operating under the assumption and created the ASP world title scenarios based off of that. This was a mistake. In the end, we’re responsible for this and should be held accountable. We apologize to our fans, the surfers and to Owen and Kelly."
The revised ASP world title scenarios are as follows:
>> If Slater wins either Round 4 or 5 (one more heat victory at the current event in San Francisco) he will confirm his 2011 ASP world title.
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>> If Slater fails to capture another heat in San Francisco, Wright must win this event to send the 2011 title race to Hawaii.
>> If the race goes to Hawaii, Slater must advance out of one heat to confirm his 2011 championship. If Kelly fails to advance through a heat at Pipeline in Hawaii, Wright must also win this event to remain in the chase.
>> If Kelly fails to advance out of another heat this season, and Owen wins in San Francisco and Hawaii, the two will tie and the title will be decided in a surf off.
