Australia win Aloha Cup at World Surfing Games, Miyazaki
Australia has taken out the Aloha Cup title at the World Surfing Games in Miyazaki Japan.
Aussie Ryan Callinan, Owen Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons and Nikki Van Dijk scored a total of 38.19 points to take the win. South Africa won silver with 38.11 points, and the US scored 35.38 for the bronze at the International Surfing Association (ISA) event.
Next year’s Olympic hosts Japan scored 28.10 for the copper medal, surfing’s equivalent of fourth place.
The Aloha Cup saw each surfer catch two waves during their leg of the relay before tagging in a team mate. Kelly Slater had a rare fall during his final wave and was handed a five-point penalty in a crushing blow to the US team sending them into third place.
Three more days of men’s action are ahead, leading to their final on Sunday (September 15). Japan’s Shun Murakami was impressive, scoring the two highest wave scores of 8.83 and 7.67 as qualification rounds resumed.
Peru’s Sofia Mulánovich won the women’s title.
Final Aloha Cup Standings:
1st Team Australia 38.19 points
2nd Team South Africa 38.11 points
3rd Team USA 35.38 points
4th Team Japan 28.1 points
According to the Olympic qualification system, the top ten eligible men and eight women, maximum two per country, at the end of the 2019 WSL CT season, will earn qualification slots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. This end-of-year ranking will also be used to determine who is nominated to be members of their national surfing teams at the 2020 WSG.