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<\/a><\/p>\n(Reuters) – Brazil’s three-times world champion Gabriel Medina won his first World Surf League event since 2021 after taking out Californian Griffin Colapinto with a display of radical, sure-footed surfing at the Western Australia Margaret River Pro on Friday.<\/p>\n
Carissa Moore, Hawaii’s five-times world champion and Olympic gold medallist, held her nerve in deteriorating conditions to claim the win over Australian Tyler Wright. <\/p>\n
The victory was Medina’s 17th world tour event victory, his first at Margaret River, and came after he sat out half the 2022 season dealing with depression and injury. <\/p>\n
“I’m back in competition mode and it fells amazing,” Medina said. “As I said, I’ve always struggled to make heats here but this year I changed it up a bit, I’ve been training a lot and to have my friends here from home is amazing.”<\/p>\n
Medina got off to a devastating start in the final, scoring an 8.00 and a 9.50 out of 10 in the first 10 minutes, refusing to be bucked off the solid, overhead waves even as they detonated on the shallow inside reef.<\/p>\n
Colapinto scored an 8.17 of his own on his first wave but could not find another big score after beating perennial event favourite John John Florence in the semi-finals. <\/p>\n
In their 12th final together, Moore triumphed over new 2023 ratings leader Wright in a low-scoring affair as rising winds made conditions tricky.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s been nine years since my last win here and I was starting to wonder whether I could do it again,” Moore said. <\/p>\n
The win was Moore’s 27th on the women’s tour, taking her to second on the all-time list behind Australia’s eight-times world champion Stephanie Gilmore.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the event, 11-times world champion Kelly Slater was one of 12 men and six women cut from the second half of the world tour but was granted a wildcard for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, keeping alive his slim hopes of making the Rip Curl WSL Finals and qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Peter Rutherford)<\/p>\n
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