June 26 : California's Sawyer Lindblad won her first surfing world championship tour event at Brazil's Rio Pro on Friday with a victory over French teenager Tya Zebrowski, while Brazil's reigning world champion Yago Dora soared to his first win of the season. In a low scoring women's final at Saquarema, near Rio de Janeiro, Lindblad - the 2024 rookie of the year - took an early lead with a couple of sub-four point scores as both surfers struggled to find the right waves in the small, wonky and backwash-affected conditions for a two-wave total of 7.67 points out of a possible 20.With the clock ticking down and needing a modest score, Zebrowski took off on a wave but couldn't complete it and ended with a two-wave total of 6.10."I'm really emotional right now. I've worked so hard for this, and yeah, I feel like I've gotten second so many times, and so happy it was finally my day," said the 20-year-old Lindblad, who had lost her previous three finals appearances.
Zebrowski, the youngest ever to qualify for the world tour at just 14, had a tough road to her first final, beating eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and then five-time world champion Carissa Moore in the earlier rounds.In tricky conditions, Dora's win in the men's final over Italy's Leonardo Fioravanti propelled him to No.3 in the rankings, among a pack of five Brazilians now chasing the Roman, who climbed to No.1 halfway through the 12-stop world tour.Having taken down Australian Ethan Ewing in their semifinal, Dora seized control of the final with a full rotation aerial on his backhand for an 8.50 out of 10. He backed it up with similar turn on a smaller wave for a 6.50, giving him a healthy two-wave total of 15. Fioravanti, who waited more than a decade to win his first championship tour event earlier this month in El Salvador, fought his way back with a solid turn-to-aerial combination for a 7.50. But the 28-year-old couldn't find another big score to end with a two-wave total of 13.17 out of 20."Oh my god, it's unbelievable. How many people are here with the rain and the storm?" said Dora. "I'm so thankful for the energy - that filled me up, for sure. I thought it was going to be an empty beach today."
