Portugal hasn’t been kind to the Top 4 surfers in the WSL Championship Tour rankings, with all four dropping out of the event by Round 3 to leave the door open for the likes of Gabriel Medina (5th in the rankings) and Filipe Toledo (6th) to close the gap at the top with just one event remaining after the Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal.
Mick was disappointed not to capitilise on the early loss of his challengers.
In Round 2, Australians Owen Wright and Julian Wilson were the first two world title challengers to fall out of the event after they lost to Caio Ibelli (BRA) and Mason Ho (HAW) respectively. Following them out of the event in Round 3 were world number two, Adriano de Souza (BRA), and Jeep Leaderboard ratings leader, Mick Fanning (AUS), who were beaten by Portuguese wildcards, Vasco Ribeiro and Frederico Morais respectively.
John John Florence (HAW) and Kelly Slater (USA) were two more high profile surfers to be eliminated from the event in Round 3 in testing conditions, while Gabriel Medina (BRA), who won the last event in France, has continued with his good momentum by recording Round 3’s highest heat total – 17.67 out of a possible 20.0pts.
Reigning world champ, Gabriel Medina has found his form late in 2015.
Round 4 kicked off with Filipe Toledo (BRA) setting the pace by winning the first heat with a massive 19.00 heat total to become the first quarter finalist. Then in the last heat of the day, wildcard Frederico Morais did just enough to become the second quarter finalist, when he finished just ahead of Nat Young in Round 4 Heat 2.
Two more heats remain in Round 4 of the Moche Rip Curl Pro to decide who qualifies directly for the quarter finals, otherwise the rest of the field still in contention will be fighting it out for a spot in the quarters in Round 5.
Go to worldsurfleague.com to catch all the heat reviews, results and photos from the Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal.
Filipe Toledo was the star of the show in Round 4.
Rigged……..