The women’s world championship race was already set to determine a conclusive victor in its final 2018 event here in Hawaii. Now the men will follow suit after Gabriel Medina was unable to clinch his second world title, Saturday at the Rip Curl Pro Portugal.
Despite threatening to end things right then and there, Medina got knocked off in the semifinals for his fourth consecutive top-three result. Had he won the contest, the world title would have once again been in his possession, as it was for the first time in 2014.
Fellow Brazilian Italo Ferreira had the honor of the knockout, as well as the eventual event victory for his third win of the season. Ferreira is the only male surfer to win three contests in 2018, but some of his lower results of late have removed him from the world title picture. He’s in fourth for the season and will finish no lower than fifth, which will make for his best year on the Championship Tour.
Medina’s early chance at the clincher was in some part due to the surprising rise of France’s Joan Duru. Coming into the contest ranked 33rd for the year, Duru took down No. 3 Filipe Toledo in the third round, No. 7 Wade Carmichael in round four, No. 2 Julian Wilson in the quarterfinals, then bested No. 5 Owen Wright in the semifinal to reach the final heat. His runner-up finish is his best to date and gives him a shot at what seemed an unlikely re-qualification bid.
Duru’s eliminations of both Toledo and Wilson now have Medina knocking on the door. Heading to Pipeline for the 2018 finale, Medina controls his own destiny and can clinch the title with either a first- or second-place finish. If Medina finishes in exactly third place, Wilson or Toledo can pass him with only a Pipe Masters victory. A fifth-place result or worse opens it up slightly for Wilson or Toledo to win the title with either a first- or second-
place finish.
While Wilson and Toledo are in a statistical tie for second place and need the same result, Wilson poses the much greater threat of ultimately lifting the trophy. He won the Pipe Masters back in 2014 and has two other quarterfinal appearances. Toledo has one quarterfinal showing from back in 2014, but he hasn’t been a threat in any other Pipeline contest.
Toledo had been brilliant for much of the year, but it’s just so hard for him to make up ground in the late stages. The way the CT schedule is currently constructed, he has to have the points lead heading into Pipeline in order to have a shot at the world title. Competitors like Medina, like Wilson, like John John Florence when healthy, have such an edge at the big barrels that Toledo has no margin for error leading up to that point.
His back-to-back 13th-place results in France and Portugal seem to have turned this now into just a two-horse race. That is unless Toledo is able to somehow outsurf everyone when the points probably won’t be dished out for aerial tactics.
So with Portugal concluded, the season is set to soon come to a close. Maui will host the women when Stephanie Gilmore and Lakey Peterson duel for a world title. Then Oahu will showcase the men as Medina, Wilson and possibly Toledo all attempt to stake their claim to a Pipe Masters championship and the 2018 crown.
•••
David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
