Today’s a swell day for World Cup final
COURTESY WORLD SURF LEAGUE
With a high enough fi nish at today’s Vans World Cup at Sunset Beach, Australia’s Joel Parkinson can clinch the Vans Triple Crown of Surfi ng championship.
All systems are go today at the Vans World Cup of Surfing.
Contest organizers for this, the second event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, waited until the last day of the 12-day waiting period to green-light the fourth of four days of competition.
And it will be in extra-large, triple-overhead wave faces, the biggest Sunset Beach can hold without conditions becoming unmanageable.
At least two titles will be decided today — the actual World Cup event winner and the Triple Crown rookie of the year. It’s also possible that the Triple Crown championship (best surfer in the three season-ending events combined) could be won today as well. That would be the case only if Australia’s Joel Parkinson, who won the Hawaiian Pro (Triple Crown opener) in November, wins the World Cup or places high enough to gain enough points to the Triple Crown.
There is also big pressure on some of the World Surf League’s qualifying series athletes today. Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, Brazil’s Jadson Andrew, Jesse Mendes and Miguel Pupo, and Australia’s Soli Bailey and Jack Freestone are just a few looking to stay in or crack into the top 10 in the qualifying series, which would get them onto the 2019 championship tour.
Action starts at 8 a.m. with the round of 32 (fourth round). That will be followed by the quarterfinals (16), semifinals (8) and the four-man final.
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Sebastian Zietz and Ezekiel Lau are the only Hawaii competitors in the fourth round.
Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, who is one of three surfers still in the chase for the WSL’s world title, is slated to go in the third heat today. He’s ranked No. 3 in the world and will go for his first world title at the season-ending Billabong Pipe Masters (Dec. 8-20) at Ehukai Beach. No. 1 Gabriel Medina of Brazil and No. 2 Julian Wilson of Australia, who are not at the World Cup, are the other two with world-title hopes.
The upcoming Pipe Masters is the finale of the WSL championship tour and the Triple Crown.
Florence out of Pipe event
Haleiwa’s John John Florence, who won world championships in 2016 and ’17, pulled out of the Pipe Masters. He suffered a knee injury earlier this year and told the WSL on Wednesday that he scrapped his original plan to surf Pipe because he does not have full trust in the strength of the knee.
