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On the men's side, Australian rookie Jack Robinson won his first
World Championship Tour (WCT) event after top level surfing
returned to Barra De La Cruz in Oaxaca state after a 15-year
absence.
The 23-year-old Robinson stormed through the field with high
risk aerial manoeuvres and scored one of the best tube rides of
the event in the final against Brazil's Deivid Silva.
"Wooooah! I did it, yeah," Robinson said in a beach interview
after his win. "Everyone else was surfing really good, but being
able to rise and go above it, I felt like I could do that every
heat. I was in a good spot."
The stylish Gilmore, who honed her skills on similar pointbreak
waves on Australia's Gold Coast, overcame Hawaii's reining world
and Olympic champion Carissa Moore in their semi-final before
taking down Malia Manuel of Hawaii in the final.
"Best feeling ever! I haven't won a contest in a long time,"
Gilmore said.
The final stop of the world tour, which had been scheduled for
Tahiti later this month, was cancelled after French Polynesia
imposed a state of emergency due to a resurgent COVID-19
outbreak.
Under a new format introduced this year, the men and women
ranked in the top five after seven events qualified for a
one-day WSL Finals at Lower Trestles in San Clemente,
California, next month.
Previously, world champions were determined by points
accumulated over the entire season.
Moore finished the top women's qualifier, followed by Australian
veteran Sally Fitzgibbons, Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb,
Gilmore, and France's Johanne Defay.
Brazilian trio Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira, Filipe Toledo
will be joined in the men's final by California's Conner Coffin
and Australian rookie Morgan Cibilic.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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