TUESDAY UPDATE:
SUTHERLAND Shire’s top surfer Connor O’Leary is on the charge.
Adjudged the top surfer at the recent Australian Teams Challenge at North Cronulla, where his Elouera Boardriders Club won the teams event and finished second overall to Snapper Rocks (Queensland), he followed up with a good 25th in the Australian Open of Surfing at Manly last week.
That result gave O’Leary 400 rating points to effectively halve his ranking to 54 in the competitive World Qualifying Series (WQS).
The world’s top 15 WQS ranked surfers at year’s end get the chance to compete against the highest level WCT surfers on next year’s ASP world circuit.
This week O’Leary joined fellow Elouera surfer Shane Campbell competing in the Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle’s Merewether beach, in another six-star world qualifiying contest.
Cronulla’s Kalani Ball made the fourth round of the Hunter Business Boardriders Pro Junior on the weekend, to cement his spot (fourth) in the top five juniors surfers in the country.
FRIDAY'S STORY:
With competition heating up at the 2014 Hurley Australian Open of Surfing at Manly, NSW surfers have experienced varied degrees of success with all women being eliminated from the main round of the elite international competition.
A handful of men remain in the event and will surf in their round of 48 heats today.
The Hurley is a nine-day event (February 8-16) which shows the world’s best surfers, skateboarders, music and art. Owned and produced by IMG Australia, the global youth and sporting event is attracting an estimated 175,000 spectators over the nine days.
Inspired by the US Open of Surfing held in Huntington Beach, California, the Hurley has a line-up of the top-rated, six-star men's and women's ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Qualifying Tour surf talent, men’s and women's world junior star-athletes, and world-class skateboarding talent.
The wave god Huey has not been kind and the conditions today at 1-2 feet are about as bad as a Sydney surfing contest can get.
Elouera’s Connor O’Leary has kept his excellent form going from the start of the year with progression into the round of 48 where he was beaten narrowly into third place in the final minutes.
This result has given O’Leary good points in this six-star prime event on the world WQS (World Qualifying Series) circuit and with the Newcastle Burton Toyota Pro contest next week also a six-star rating, this is Connor’s best chance to make an impression on his run into professional surfing’s top division.
Finals will be held at Manly beach on Sunday afternoon and shown live on Fuel TV.
With competition heating up at the 2014 Hurley Australian Open of Surfing at Manly, NSW surfers have experienced varied degrees of success with all women being eliminated from the main round of the elite international competition. Meanwhile, a handful of men remain in the event and will surf in their round of 48 heats today.
The Hurley Australian Open of Surfing 2014 is a nine-day event (Feb 8th-16th) which will showcase the world’s best surfers, skateboarders, music and art at iconic Manly Beach, Sydney. Owned and produced by IMG Australia, the global youth and sporting event is expected to attract an audience of in excess of 175,000 people.
Inspired by the US Open of Surfing held in Huntington Beach, California, the Hurley Australian Open of Surfing boasts a line up of the top-rated 6-star men's and women's ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Qualifying Tour surf talent, men’s and women's world junior star-athletes, and a world-class line-up of skateboarding talent.
The wave god Huey has not been kind and today’s conditions at 1-2 feet are about as bad as a Sydney surfing contest can get.
Elouera’s Connor O’Leary has kept his excellent form going from the start of the year with progression into the round of 48- where he was narrowly beaten into third place in the final minutes.This gives him good points in this a 6 star prime event on the world WQS circuit and with next week’s Newcastle Matara contest also being a 6 star this is Connors best opportunity to make an impression on his run into professional surfing’s top division.
Finals are held at Manly beach on Sunday afternoon and it is live on Fuel TV, so if you can’t get there for the real thing the next best is to watch it live on Fuel.
