Kelly Slater’s 11th Title celebrated prematurely
OCEAN BEACH, San Francisco/California (Friday, November 4, 2011) - The ASP has admitted that, due to a calculation error within its rankings’ system, the 2011 ASP World Title has yet to be officially decided and that Kelly Slater (USA), 39, was prematurely awarded his 11th ASP World Title on Wednesday.
“Our rankings’ system is designed to split tie-breaks based off of seed points,” Renato Hickel, ASP World Tour Manager, said. “Kelly (Slater) 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 that 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.”
Moving forward, Slater must win one more heat, either at the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco or at the following event at Pipeline in Hawaii to confirm his 2011 ASP World Title. For Wright to remain in the hunt, he must win both the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco and the following event at Pipeline in Hawaii.
This may not have been discovered had it not been for the fact that Kelly himself figured it out after seeing a post about it on a message board. When he did the calculations himself, he discovered that there was indeed an error and immediately notified the ASP. He has no interest in the title unless he wins fair and square. A standup guy all around. Meanwhile the ASP World Tour manager has been busily wiping the egg from his face.