France in Historic Win

SNAPPY SURFING: Joan Duru joints compatriot Jeremy Flores in the semis. Photo ISA / Evans

Jhony Corzo of Mexico won, with runner up Joan Duru of France, while Jonathan Gonzales of Spain ensured Spain came third. Pedro Henrique of Portugal was fourth, with Portugal second overall. Jeremy Flores was knocked out in the semifinal as was last African standing, Yassine Ramdani of Morocco, an amazing achievement.

Going into the final day, the ISA had already officially announced that the host country had nailed it after Flores and Duru made it to the semi-finals, with Pauline Ado and Johanne Defay having laid the platform with top points after taking gold and silver respectively in the women's.

No other team could catch France, but it was an indication of how multi-cultural surfing has become. Two Spaniards made the semis, and with Gonzales taking copper, Spain took third place behind Portugal. Not one of the top five teams on the leaderboard could be considered a surfing super power. Brazil, the US, Australia and South Africa all fell outside the top five.

Download(385 KB) the results PDF.

Six nations out of eight surfers were represented in the semi-finals. They were Portugal, Mexico, France, Spain, Morocco and the US.

AFRICAN HISTORY: Moroccan Yassine Ramdani surfs into the semis. Photo ISA / Evans

By the end of Round 3, Africa was represented by an unlikely solo source, Ramdani from MAR, otherwise known as Morocco. What makes that even more amazing, or frustrating, depending on your viewpoint, was that had Ramdani got a gold or silver, Morocco would have edged South Africa - the first time this would have happened in an international surfing event.

Fortunately that did not happen, or perhaps it should have - as a subtle way to give the guys a bit of a skrik. It was not all doom and gloom though, with South Africa making up one place from the last ISA WSG in Costa Rica where they placed 11th.

ISA President Fernando Aguerre was stoked: “I am also very excited to see the universality of our sport in the semifinals with surfers from Europe, the Americas and Africa vying for the Gold Medal.”

ALL HANDS: Jeremy Flores psyches up Team France for the final stretch. Photo ISA / Evans

The seventh day of competition kicked off with Round 3 and 4 in sunny, clean conditions at Grande Plage. The swell increased as expected and the remaining members of the 47 National Surfing Teams left it all in the ocean. Teams that had solid results in the Women’s Division, such as Costa Rica and South Africa, lost the last of their remaining men.

Slowly but surely, all four remaining South Africans fell, with the requirement being a top two finish in the four-man heats. First to go the day before was Davey Van Zyl in Round 2. It was desparately close with the final score reflecting 11.50 for 2nd placed Mexican Dylan Southworth and 11.46 for Van Zyl, who fell out of the Worlds by 0.04 of a point.

Yesterday, Dylan Lightfoot (Heat 2, 3rd place) was the first to go, followed by Brandon Benjamin (Heat 12, 4th place), and Shane Sykes (Heat 16, 3rd place). For Sykes, it was a tough ask, surfing against in-form 18-year-old wunderkind Jordy Collins (USA) and crowd favourite Jeremy Flores (France), both of went on to make the semis, where both fell out of contention.

TOUGH ASK: Shane Sykes was up against Collins and Flores in his Round 3 heat. Photo ISA / Evans

The final day was clean in a dropping swell. The semis and finals were decided, before the top eight teams took to the water in the unique Aloha Cup competition. The ISA Aloha Cup is a team relay event that includes the top eight teams from the last ISA World Surfing Games (Costa Rica).

Three men and one woman on each team surf in the relay, summing up the wave totals from each athlete in a 40 minute heat. The team that ends up having the highest overall heat score wins.

Aloha Semifinal 1
Peru
France
Costa Rica
New Zealand

Aloha Semifinal 2
Portugal
USA
Argentina
Japan

Men's Semifinal 1
Pedro Henrique (POR)
Jhony Corzo (MEX)
Jeremy Flores (FRA)
Vicente Romero (ESP)

Men's Semifinal 2
Jonathan González (ESP)
Yassine Ramdani (MAR)
Jordy Collins (USA)
Joan Duru (FRA)