Where to start, I know we should have expected it but in all time pumping Teahupoo, Gabriel Medina from Brasil takes the 1st place finish!! and beat 9x world champ Kelly Slater in the final.
I mean come on, the lad is only 19 years of age and from Brasil which is not known for its large waves and to beat Kelly in those conditions is remarkable to say the least.
How does this affect the world title race, lets have a look at the new top 5 and the points difference with only 4 events left to go :
1 |
- |
|
46,150 |
1 |
5 |
9 |
13 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$352,000 |
2 |
4 |
|
38,350 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
13 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$134,500 |
3 |
-1 |
|
36,150 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
9 |
9 |
2 |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$144,500 |
4 |
1 |
|
34,500 |
13 |
1 |
25 |
1 |
3 |
13 |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$259,500 |
5 |
-2 |
|
34,400 |
5 |
13 |
1 |
25 |
5 |
1 |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$257,000 |
It looks to me that Medina is a good 8000 points clear of Kelly and he only has one throw away! With a championship tour event win giving you 10000 points, it looks like the rest of the field have got some work to do.
With the next event at Trestles in California on the 9th September and being a high performance aerial wave, this could see Medina extend his lead event more. Can anyone catch him?
I will be tuning in to find out.