Latest news with #FelipeToledo
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fitzgibbons, Wilson fall short in Gold Coast Pro final
Julian Wilson's incredible run from the trial to the title has fallen just short with the Australian surfing veteran beaten in an epic final at the Gold Coast Pro. The 36-year-old squared off against Felipe Toledo in the title decider which was a repeat of their 2015 final, also won by the Brazilian, and was edged in a thriller 17.60 to 17.20. Fellow Australian Sally Fitzgibbons also went down swinging in the women's final at Burleigh Heads with Hawaii's Bettylou Sakura Johnson claiming her first World Surf League trophy. After almost four years away from the tour, Wilson claimed the sole wildcard for the main event by winning the pre-competition trial and then surfed his way all the way through to Saturday's final. He and two-time world champion Toledo went blow for blow, with the crowd packed on the headland roaring their approval for both veterans for their lofty airs and searing turns. In his first final for 2025 after taking last season off, Toledo, who scored a perfect 10 ride in his semi-final, set the benchmark early with an 8.53 which he backed up with a 9.07. Former world No.2 Wilson kept hammering, with his top scoring waves of 8.80 and 8.40 coming in the back-end of the final in a heated finish between the rivals. 10 years later and @filipetoledo wins another @originalbonsoy #GoldCoastPro!! 🏆Huge congrats to Filipe.@gwmaustralia @experiencegoldcoast @queensland — World Surf League (@wsl) May 10, 2025 But in the end there was no fairytale finish and fifth title for the Sunshine Coast product, who will compete in the Challenger Series next year. "It's not easy to step away from the thing you love to prioritise your family and watch from the sidelines and I guess these surfers inspire me so much," said an emotional Wilson. "This is what I was born to do. My kids got to share it this week and it's been super, super special." Seeking her first CT title since a win at Rottnest Island in 2021, Fitzgibbons was also denied by the Hawaiian young gun. The 34-year-old threw everything at her young rival, surfing a mammoth 13 waves, but fell short with a two-wave score of 7.83 to Sakura Johnson's impressive tally of 15.33. FIRST CT WIN FOR BETTYLOU 🏆A huge congrats to Bettylou, winner of the 2025 @originalbonsoy #GoldCoastPro!@Queensland — World Surf League (@wsl) May 10, 2025 The Gerroa surfer went to the air four times, trying to stick a landing that would give her a score to put her back in contention, but she was unable to seal the deal. "I wanted to get it together so bad in that final but it was Betty's day," Fitzgibbons said. "It's been a fight and a grind in the last few years, but I want to be here and my deep desire is to keep surfing." It was Sakura Johnson's second win of the day over a local hope after earlier eliminating top-ranked Australian Molly Picklum in the quarter-finals. "This is the best feeling in the world, and I'm over the moon to have my first win here on the Gold Coast," said Sakura Johnson, competing in her second final after bursting on to the scene as a 16-year-old. "This is what winning feels like, and I want to keep winning." Fitzgibbons outscored Erin Brooks in the semi-finals earlier in the day, with the Canadian wunderkind eliminating six-time Gold Coast champion and eight-time world title holder Stephanie Gilmore in the quarters. With Gilmore's former coach Jake Patterson in her corner, Brooks used superior wave selection to get the better of the Australian legend, who is due to return to the tour full-time next year.
Reuters
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Toledo wins instant classic over wildcard Wilson at Gold Coast Pro
May 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's two-time world champion Felipe Toledo beat Australian wildcard Julian Wilson to win the Gold Coast Pro in an instant pro surfing classic on Saturday, a decade after the two met at the finals of the same event. The 36-year-old Wilson stepped away from the tour in 2021 as COVID travel restrictions and the demands of a young family took a toll, but has targeted 2025 as his comeback year and won the trials to get a spot in the main event. Wilson took down a number of top surfers, including 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira and Japan's 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Kanoa Igarashi on his run to the final with some of the biggest and most technical aerials seen all season. But Toledo, who rejoined the tour this year after taking a mental health break in 2024, was also in rare form in high quality, head-high waves at the right-hand point break of Burleigh Heads. Toledo scored the event's only perfect 10 for a deep, long tube and alley-oop aerial in his semifinal against compatriot Alejo Muniz and started the final with an excellent score for a full rotation air. Wilson quickly responded with two high-risk spins of his own but his lead was short-lived as Toledo racked up two even better scores, combining searing turns, deep tubes and lofty airs. Toledo's hefty two wave total of 17.60 out of 20 looked to be enough but Wilson refused to give up. He scored an 8.8 late in the final before somewhat controversially winning priority, exchanging some angry words with his rival and catching one last wave as the clock ticked down. Needing another 8.8, his final score was 8.4, leaving him 0.4 points short at 17.20 out of 20 to give Toledo the win - the same result as when they met in the 2015 final. "It's not easy to step away from the thing you love, to prioritise your family and watch from the sidelines, and these surfers inspire me so much. This is what I was born to do," Wilson said, paying credit to Toledo and his chanting Brazilian fans. Hawaii's Bettylou Sakura Johnson broke through to win her first world championship tour event with a dominant performance over Australian veteran Sally Fitzgibbons in the women's finals. Both Fitzgibbons, 34, and Johnson, 20, struggled in the early part of the season, with neither progressing past the quarterfinals in the first five events of the tour. Johnson got off to an ideal start in their final, scoring an 8.5 out of 10 for a series of powerful turns on a fast-grinding wave. Before her rival could get a decent score, Johnson backed it up for a 6.5 and a 15-point heat total. "This is the best feeling in the world and I'm over the moon to have my first win here on the Gold Coast," said Johnson. "Yeah, this is what winning feels like and I want to keep winning." The wins boost both Johnson and Toledo to sixth in the world. The tour next heads to the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia for stop number seven, after which the men's and women's fields will be cut by a third for the remaining four events. The top five surfers will then face off in a one-day, winner-takes-all finale in Fiji in August.
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Pipeline back as world surf tour finale in 2026
FILE PHOTO: Felipe Toledo of Brazil competes at the Rip Curl World Surf League Finals, at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci/File Photo SYDNEY - Hawaii's Pipeline Masters will return as a high-stakes finale for surfing's world tour in 2026, part of a shake-up unveiled on Saturday that includes the resumption of a Formula One-style cumulative rankings format to determine world champions. Considered the world's most dangerous and challenging wave, Pipeline has for decades taken centre-stage at surfing's spiritual homeland of Hawaii, with season-ending contests there crowning champions including Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina and John John Florence. In recent years, Pipeline has been the first stop on the championship tour, with a one-day, winner-takes-all contest of the top five surfers held instead in softer waves in Southern California. (The 2025 Finals are being held in Fiji.) "Pipeline has always held a special place in surfing history, and our fans have made it clear they want to see our sport's most critical moments unfold there," said Ryan Crosby, the chief executive of professional governing body, the World Surf League. The tour's controversial mid-season cut of one-third of competitors is also being tweaked. All 36 men and 24 women will contest the first nine "regular season" events and return for the 12th and final event at Pipeline. Stops include Bells Beach in Australia, Jeffreys Bay in South Africa and the 2024 Olympics venue of Teahupo'o in Tahiti. Abu Dhabi's wave pool and Peniche in Portugal will host the two smaller "post season" events before Pipeline. Results at Pipeline will be worth 1.5 times standard championship tour events to reflect its elevated status, with world titles determined by a surfer's best nine results from the April-December tour. "I've never felt anything like the moment I won at Pipeline," said 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira. "Winning the Olympic gold medal and competing in the WSL Finals were amazing, but nothing in surfing compares to winning the world title at Pipe. I'm so excited for the chance to compete for that feeling again." Crosby, giving his first interviews since joining the WSL as CEO a year ago, said the primary focus had been around making Pipeline the finale, which prompted other changes including a return to cumulative points through the season. "One is the final five format. We didn't feel good about only having 10 surfers be able to surf Pipe. That felt like a really bad outcome for the sport and a bad outcome for the surfers. And then secondarily, from a permitting standpoint ... we couldn't run a final five format in a Hawaiian event." Heading into its 50th year in 2026, professional surfing has experimented with a number of different formats and venues but struggled to broaden its appeal to a wider, non-surfing audience, something Crosby said the WSL was shifting focus on. "Our goal, and it's been a bit of a mindset shift, is to really focus on doing what's right for surfing and doing what's right for surfers," Crosby, a keen surfer for more than 20 years, told Reuters. "The belief is focusing on that really engaged audience is the organic growth mechanism to a broader audience." 2026 WSL Championship Tour locations - Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia - Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia - Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia - Punta Roca, El Salvador - Saquarema, Brazil - Jeffreys Bay, South Africa - Teahupo'o, Tahiti - Cloudbreak, Fiji - Lower Trestles, California, USA* - Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Peniche, Portugal - Pipe Masters, Hawaii, USA** * End of regular season, start of post-season ** Full championship tour fields rejoin post-season surfers to compete at Pipe Masters REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
02-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Surfing-Pipeline back as world surf tour finale in 2026
FILE PHOTO: Felipe Toledo of Brazil competes at the Rip Curl World Surf League Finals, at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci/File Photo SYDNEY (Reuters) -Hawaii's Pipeline Masters will return as a high-stakes finale for surfing's world tour in 2026, part of a shake-up unveiled on Saturday that includes the resumption of a Formula One-style cumulative rankings format to determine world champions. Considered the world's most dangerous and challenging wave, Pipeline has for decades taken centre-stage at surfing's spiritual homeland of Hawaii, with season-ending contests there crowning champions including Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina and John John Florence. In recent years, Pipeline has been the first stop on the championship tour, with a one-day, winner-takes-all contest of the top five surfers held instead in softer waves in Southern California. (The 2025 Finals are being held in Fiji.) "Pipeline has always held a special place in surfing history, and our fans have made it clear they want to see our sport's most critical moments unfold there," said Ryan Crosby, the chief executive of professional governing body, the World Surf League. The tour's controversial mid-season cut of one-third of competitors is also being tweaked. All 36 men and 24 women will contest the first nine "regular season" events and return for the 12th and final event at Pipeline. Stops include Bells Beach in Australia, Jeffreys Bay in South Africa and the 2024 Olympics venue of Teahupo'o in Tahiti. Abu Dhabi's wave pool and Peniche in Portugal will host the two smaller "post season" events before Pipeline. Results at Pipeline will be worth 1.5 times standard championship tour events to reflect its elevated status, with world titles determined by a surfer's best nine results from the April-December tour. "I've never felt anything like the moment I won at Pipeline," said 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira. "Winning the Olympic gold medal and competing in the WSL Finals were amazing, but nothing in surfing compares to winning the world title at Pipe. I'm so excited for the chance to compete for that feeling again." Crosby, giving his first interviews since joining the WSL as CEO a year ago, said the primary focus had been around making Pipeline the finale, which prompted other changes including a return to cumulative points through the season. "One is the final five format. We didn't feel good about only having 10 surfers be able to surf Pipe. That felt like a really bad outcome for the sport and a bad outcome for the surfers. And then secondarily, from a permitting standpoint ... we couldn't run a final five format in a Hawaiian event." Heading into its 50th year in 2026, professional surfing has experimented with a number of different formats and venues but struggled to broaden its appeal to a wider, non-surfing audience, something Crosby said the WSL was shifting focus on. "Our goal, and it's been a bit of a mindset shift, is to really focus on doing what's right for surfing and doing what's right for surfers," Crosby, a keen surfer for more than 20 years, told Reuters. "The belief is focusing on that really engaged audience is the organic growth mechanism to a broader audience." 2026 WSL Championship Tour locations - Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia - Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia - Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia - Punta Roca, El Salvador - Saquarema, Brazil - Jeffreys Bay, South Africa - Teahupo'o, Tahiti - Cloudbreak, Fiji - Lower Trestles, California, USA* - Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Peniche, Portugal - Pipe Masters, Hawaii, USA** * End of regular season, start of post-season ** Full championship tour fields rejoin post-season surfers to compete at Pipe Masters (Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)
