Gabriel Medina is just two heats away from being three-time world surfing champion. Leader of the World Tour ranking, the Brazilian is guaranteed a place in the big decision of the WSL Finals, the last stage of the season.
After seven stages throughout 2020-21, the WSL Finals will bring together the top five in the rankings in Lower Trestles, USA. It will only be one day of competition between 9th and 17th of September, in the one with the best wave conditions.
Medina is guaranteed at the top of the rankings. The other four classified are the Brazilians Italo Ferreira, current champion of the Circuit and gold at Tokyo-2020, and Filipe Toledo, the American Conner Coffin and the Australian Morgan Cibilic. The final classification of surfers in the ranking will be made official at the end of the Mexico stage, which has a chance of finishing today.
The format of the WSL Finals is as follows: in single heats, the fifth in the ranking faces the fourth in the first phase; whoever wins takes the third ranked in the next stage; the new winner faces the vice leader of the ranking.
In the grand final, the remaining surfer duels against the leader of the ranking, which in this case is Gabriel Medina, in best of three heats. In other words, Medina needs to win two heats to win a new world title – he was champion in 2014 and 2018.
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