LISBON — Californian Griffin Colapinto surged to the top of surfing’s world rankings after two great tube rides gave him the win in the final over Australia’s Ethan Ewing at the World Surfing Championship in Portugal.
In a battle of tour veterans, France’s Johanne Defay got the better of Australian Tyler Wright in a low-scoring women’s final in the tricky and powerful beach break, claiming her first world tour win in two years.
Brazil’s three-times world champion Gabriel Medina came into the contest hot off winning the final Olympic qualifying event in Puerto Rico to book his spot for the Paris 2024 Games and looked unstoppable before running into Colapinto in the semi-final.
Ewing recovered from a broken back late last season to finish No.2 in the world after beating Colapinto at the one-day Finals competition in California, and got the better of Colapinto’s younger brother, rookie Crosby, in their semi-final in Portugal.
Just as Ewing looked to be coming back, Colapinto responded, first with a tube and a radical turn on his forehand, then with a long, deep backhand tube to finish with 17.94 points out of a possible 20.
“I had a hip surgery in the off season and it took me almost three months to get back in the water,” Colapinto said according to Reuters.
“I put so much effort in and I thought it would pay off right away but in Hawaii I got two ninths. Sometimes you just have to trust it, now I have a win so I´m psyched.”
On the women’s side of the draw, the older guard staged an intervention after youngsters Caity Simmers and Molly Picklum dominated the first two events of the year in Hawaii to fuel talk of a changing of the guard.
Defay, Wright, Californian Lakey Peterson and Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb used their 50-odd years of combined experience on the world tour to claim all four semi-final spots in Portugal.
Wright, a three-times world champion, was too strong for Weston-Webb in their semi-final, while Defay secured a comfortable win over Peterson.
With the waves picking up in size but shutting down quickly for their final, both Defay and Wright focused on their backhands — a strength for Defay who grew up surfing the long left-handers on Reunion Island.
Defay scored a pair of fives for some big single manoeuvre turns to finish with 10.83 points to Wright’s 5.5-point heat total.
“Waves changed and the swell arrived for sure, I think we both had similar strategies and maybe we both had boards a little bit small for these waves,” said Defay, now ranked No.2 in the world.
“I focused on the lefts obviously and was looking for two turns but in the end one was enough.”
The tour now heads to Australia for a two-event leg, after which both the men’s and women’s fields will be cut by a third.
Australian Olympians Tyler Wright and Ethan Ewing have reached finals at the latest World Surfing League.
Then Ewing, who’d earlier in the day performed superbly to get through his quarter-final and semi-final, was outclassed in the late afternoon men’s showdown with American Griffin Colapinto, who prevailed 17.94 to 11.13.
The 29-year-old Wright, who had earlier defeated Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb in the semi-finals, 13.36 to 11.30, couldn’t find either the same waves or form for the final as she moved up to eighth overall in the women’s WSL standings (13,020 points).
Her Aussie compatriot Molly Picklum (20,410) is ranked No.1, while Defay has moved into second overall on 19,490 with her win – closing the gap on Picklum to 920 points.
After her worst start since qualifying full time for the tour in 2011 – starting the season with two third-round exits – two-time world champion Wright looked more like her usual self in Portugal.
“It’s amazing, I feel like this has been a really key point for my year,” Wright said.
“It’s taken me a while to figure out some of the different changes that I’ve had going on. Thank you Portugal for having us, I really enjoyed myself.”
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