Malia Manuel defeats Sage Erickson to move into Round 3 of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic
Hawaii’s Malia Manuel managed to prevail over America’ Sage Erickson in the second heat of the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic’s Round 2 that went down at the Dee Why point in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, April 19.
The crucial victory over Erickson allowed Manuel to successfully advance through into the third round of the fourth of seven stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Title Series while removing the American surfer from the
contention for the event title in the process.
With the best female surfers from around the world competing for top honours and coveted ASP Women’s World Tour raking points, the crowd in attendance at Dee Why point got to witness a series of thrilling battles. The action was nothing short of satisfying
during the first round of the competition and became even more gripping as the Round 2 battles got underway, pitting surfers who had failed to do well in their Round 1 heat against each other in a showdown for survival.
After failing to clinch a successful result in Round 1, both Manuel and Erickson found themselves facing each other in the second heat of Round 2. Neither of the two surfers had look out of rhythm in their previous heat and thus were expected to give each
other a real tough fight to get their hands on the Round 3 spot.
Once the battle for survival got underway, the testy surfing conditions prevailing at the event site pushed both the surfers on their back foot. The tricky four-foot waves accompanied by winds did not offer much room for Manuel and Erickson to perform turns
or more technical tricks.
The Hawaiian surfer eventually found an opening to unload a few of her tricks and thus moved into the lead by posting a 4.75 on the score-board. She soon backed it up with a 5.45-point ride to move to a heat-total of 10.20 points.
Erickson, who was struggling to find a decent wave just as much as her rival, got hold of a 4.20-point ride halfway through the heat and went on to add an additional 4.90 points to her account in toe dying minutes of the battle, finishing with a resultant
heat-total of 9.10 points. Failing to improve her score, the American surfer was forced to surrender victory to Manuel, consequently getting eliminated from the event while sending her rival through into the next round.
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