More than 9,886 kilometers separate Arecibo from Teahupo’o (Tahiti). Sunday March 3, however, only one small step seemed to separate them. The World Surfing Championships, held in Puerto Rico, were the last opportunity to qualify for the Olympics, 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 Reunionese Johanne Defay – already qualified – both won a bronze medal.
The 22-year-old surfer, in full progress, achieved a spectacular hit in the final: “Last year, I finished 5th in the 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 Le Monde a 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 ahead of the Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, titled for the fourth time, 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 is enormous (…). Three years ago [for the Tokyo Games], I came very close. These were the first Games, they were not in France and it went over my head a little. Jérémy [Florès] and Michel [Bourez] had qualified, and I was 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 from Landes, 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 win a third men's quota – awarded to the team best ranked 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 Boukhiam, 2nd, Kauli Vaast, 3rd, and Joan Duru, 4th.
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 Vahine Fierro, as well as 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 9th in 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 rankings). The non-nominative 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 (eight), eleven times world champion, did not manage to secure his ticket for the Paris Games.
