PARIS 2024: Robinson will surf for gold after Teahupo’o semi win

Jack Robinson will go for gold in the Olympic surfing after stunning Brazilian Gabriel Medina in their semi-final.

The Western Australian pulled out a mighty barrel run at Tahiti’s Teahupo’o break to lock up a medal.

In patchy surf, Robinson found the wave he needed, and his reward is a place in the gold-medal match against local hope Kauli Vaast later on Tuesday (AEST).

Regardless of his result, it will be Australia’s best result in Olympic surfing, which was added to the program in Tokyo where Owen Wright won bronze.

Three-time world champion Medina was also the loser in that bronze-medal match, and will now surf to avenge that result against Peru’s Alonso Correa.

Competitors returned to the water after three lay days as the 10-day window allotted for surfing expired.

Needing four full days of surfing to reach the gold-medal matches, competition was interrupted twice during the Games.

A storm which delivered terrifying swell stopped proceedings for two days last week, with organisers then calling three lay days due to a lack of decent waves. 

Surfline labelled the swell merely “fair” on Monday but with the window closing, the semi-finals were called on in waves under 2m, with surfers needing to make the best of it.

Neither Robinson and Medina caught a wave in the opening seven minutes, though they dueled for position in the sea, paddling furiously alongside each other to seek opportunity.

The Brazilian goofy-footer scored best from their opening exchange, with a four-turn move yielding 6.33 from the judges.

Robinson’s own combination move brought 4.50 before a long barrel run broke the semi-final apart, scoring 7.83 for a mid-heat score of 12.33, putting the heat on Medina.

Another long wait for waves can’t have helped nerves of the Brazilian, who was photographed last week flying out of the surf in one of the images of the Paris Games.

He cast a frustrated figure waiting for another decent wave which didn’t come, taking just one wave across the half-hour.

Instead, he paddled over to his rival to offer congratulations, sparking celebrations from the Australian camp in French Polynesia.

Earlier, Vaast – who was raised kilometres from Teahupo’o and first surfed the infamous break aged eight – bested Correa in their cat-and-mouse semi-final.

Vaast, representing France, put two small scores on the board but then became more discerning, waiting for the big point-scoring opportunities.

Correa, in contrast, got to work, throwing shapes and carving up several waves in combination moves to take a lead.

Then Vaast’s moments arrived, scoring 5.83 and 5.13 with his final two rides, winning 10.96 to 9.60 in an engrossing battle.

– AAP