WORLD TITLE TO BE DECIDED AT PIPE: World Championship Tour leader Gabriel Medina went down to Brett Simpson at the round 3 stage of The Moche Rip Curl Pro ending his chances of wrapping up his first World Title at the event in Peniche, Portugal. Instead the title will go down to the last round and WCT showpiece at Pipeline, Hawaii, leaving four surfers with a mathematical chance of being crowned World Champion. It was a day of shock exits as Medinas Closet World Title rival Kelly Slater failed to capitalise on the Brazilians early exit. Slater lost in the very next heat to Aritz Aranburu, and although he thought his chances of a 12th World title had slipped by with his round 3 defeat, he is still in the title race. Also exiting at the round 3 stage was 2012 World Champion Joel Parkinson falling at the hands of fellow Aussie Adam Melling. Stealing the show during rounds two and three of the event were inform John John Florence, 2013 World Champ Mick Fanning, and last years Moche Rip Curl Pro winner Kai Otton. All three read the tricky Supertubos beach break with ease. Deep barrels saw them with high heat totals and two wave scores in the excellent range. The wave of the day went to John John, after being spat out of a stand up keg every judge scored the wave with a perfect 10. Who will now win the 2014 World Title.....Gabe Medina?.....Kelly Slater?.....Mick Fanning?......John John Florence. Gabriel now needs a 9th place or better at Pipeline to seal the title. Check out our photo summary of today at Peniche. #ASP #Medina #GabrielMedina #KellySlater #JohnJohnFlorence #JJF #MocheRipCurlPro #Surfer #Surf #Surfing #Peniche #Supertubos #Portugal
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 19:57:38 +0000