With Julian Wilson (AUS) winning the Rip Curl Pro Portugal event last Friday, the title race now moves to event number 9: the Coldwater Classic at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California from November 1-11, 2012.
It was an exciting final seconds at Supertubos when Julian Wilson (AUS) beat Gabriel Medina (BRA) with a barrel ride to win his first World Tour event. The win over 18-year-old Medina earned 23-year-old Wilson 10,000 points toward the World Tour title and $75,000, leaving Wilson in sixth place in the ranking.
11-time tour champion Kelly Slater (USA) failed to find a wave to get him to the semifinals. Kelly still remains in second place in the ASP World Tour rankings despite his bad finish in Portugal.
He is 5,500 points behind Joel Parkinson for the lead. Parkinson lost to Medina in the semifinals. He still maintains his overall lead for the 2012 title with 52,700 points.
With only 2 events left – the O’Neill Coldwater Classic Santa Cruz in California and Banzai Pipeline in Oahu – this means that the title race will go down to the wire at Pipeline for the first time since 2006.
The 25-year-old O’Neill Coldwater Classic is on the ASP World Tour for the first time since ASP created a two-tiered competition system in 1992. It also coincides with the 60th anniversary of O’Neill Wetsuits.
Here is the current ASP WCT TOP 5 (After Rip Curl Pro Portugal):
- Joel Parkinson (AUS) 52,700 pts
- Kelly Slater (USA) 47,200 pts
- Mick Fanning (AUS) 47,000 pts
- John John Florence (HAW) 44,350 pts
- Adriano de Souza (BRA) 37,650 pts
The pressure is on!
Photo via Oneill.com
