More than 9,886 km separate Arecibo from Teahupo’o (Tahiti). Sunday March 3, however, only one small step seemed to separate them. The Surfing Worlds, organized in Puerto Rico, were the last opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games, the events of which will take place from July 27 to August 4 in French Polynesia. Obviously, the competition had the feel of a dress rehearsal.
In search of additional quotas, but above all benchmarks, five months before the Olympics, the French responded. The Tahitian Kauli Vaast and the Reunion Islander Johanne Defay – already qualified – all won a bronze medal.
The 22-year-old surfer, in full progress, made a spectacular hit in the final: “ Last year I finished 5e world during the Olympic qualification. There was a lot of pressure: the Games took place here, in Tahiti, and it was almost an obligation to participate. This time, I already have my ticket, I’m only here for the performance and I really want to win”, he confided to World, few months ago. The contract is fulfilled.
The 2017 world vice-champion showed off her sharp technique on two beautiful waves (12 points). She is beaten by the Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, titled for 4e times, and the Brazilian Tatiana Weston Webb.
Four French representatives at the Olympics
The Bayonnais Joan Duru had won the last nominative quota for the Paris Games the day before, by reaching the final of the main draw. “It’s huge (…) Three years ago [pour Tokyo], I had passed very close. It was the first Games, they weren’t in France and it went over my head a little. Jeremy [Florès] and Michael [Bourez] had qualified, and I was the third… This time, I wanted to be there. The Games are taking place in France, I really had to fight to get my place, I really gave everything”reacted the 34-year-old Landais, who will retire at the end of the Olympic high mass.
The Blues will still be able to have some regrets about these World Cups. In the fight with Brazil to get a 3e male quota – awarded to the highest ranked team by gender during the competition – the Tricolores saw the Brazilian Gabriel Medina take the lead from the first minutes of the final. With a wave rated nine by the judges (out of a maximum of 10), the three-time winner of the Championship Tour only had to settle for a second wave at 7.40 to dismiss the Moroccan Ramzi Boukiam, 2eKauli Vaast, 3eand Joan Duru, 4e.
France finally finished second nation in these Worlds. The surfing Blues will therefore be four at Teahupo’o, they who could hope to be six at most: Joan Duru joins the two Tahitians Kauli Vaast and Vahiné Fierro, as well as the Réunionnaise Johanne Defay. The scenario is all the more terrible for the French clan, as the Bayonnais won his Olympic quota in the last three minutes of his semi-final, under the nose of his compatriot Marco Mignot. Finally 9e of these championships, the latter will not compete in the Games.
In Puerto Rico, the Brazilian team impressed by winning almost all the titles (best nation, individual men’s world champion, winner of the two gender classifications). The non-nominal ticket won among the men should logically go to Gabriel Medina. On the other hand, American surfing legend Kelly Slater will have to watch the competition from her television. At 51, the record holder for victories in the Tahiti Pro (8), eleven times world champion, did not manage to punch his ticket for the Paris Games.