Stairmand through, Christie out of Vans

File picture

SURFING

PART 2 of the Triple Crown ended for Gisborne-Mahia surfer Ricardo Christie and a fellow Kiwi played a part in his demise.

Christie was eliminated from the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Hawaii’s Sunset Beach yesterday.

He placed third in his four-man Round 2 heat — the top two advanced to Round 3 of the World Surf League Qualifying Series 10,000 contest.

Christie’s heat opponents included Raglan surfer Billy Stairmand, who placed second.

Hawaiian Ian Gentil won the heat with a score of 15.10 (7.93, 7.17) out of 20 for his two best waves.

Stairmand totalled 12.16 (6.33, 5.83), Christie 11.80 (7.33, 4.47) and Australian Kalani Ball 11.04 (4.77, 6.27).

Christie put himself into the mix with his fourth wave of the heat, a 7.33 effort, but was unable to find the ride to get him into the top two and ran out of time.

The World Cup of Surfing is the second of the three contests that make up the Triple Crown.

Christie was knocked out in Round 3 of the first contest — the Hawaiian Pro, also a QS 10,000 event.

He is 116th on the QS rankings while Stairmand is 79th. The top 10 at the end of the QS qualify for the 2020 Championship Tour on which Christie is competing this year.

Christie is 33rd on the CT rankings. The top 22 retain their places for 2020.

His focus now shifts to the 11th and final CT contest for 2019 and the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Billabong Pipeline at Oahu’s Banzai Pipeline, starting on December 9 (NZ time).

He faces Brazilian Filipe Toledo and Deivid Silva in the seeding round.