By Lincoln Feast
(Reuters) -Brazil's Yago Dora surfed with power and precision to win his first world title on Tuesday, triumphing over California's Griffin Colapinto at the WSL finals in solid waves at Fiji's Cloudbreak reef.
The 29-year-old from Florianopolis had his best ever year on surfing's world tour, winning two events and qualifying as the top seed for the one-day, winner-takes-all finals for the top five surfers.
"It's unbelievable. The signs were all there for me. I felt something special
this week, since I got here in Fiji, I knew something going my way," Dora said from the water in front of a flotilla of spectator boats.
"It didn't matter whoever I was going to get in the finals, things were going to happen, and I was going to come out to win. I'm so happy, I have no words."
While the waves at Cloudbreak would be a dream for most surfers - overhead, clean and powerful - conditions were perhaps not quite as big or as challenging as hoped for or what the remote reef can produce on its day.
That probably favoured the Brazilian goofy-footer, riding facing the fast-running waves.
Renowned for his style and his dizzying array of high-risk aerial manoeuvres, Dora quickly found his feet, racking up a 7.33 out of 10 for two surgically sharp turns on his first wave.
Colapinto fought his way back into the lead, squeezing out of a tight tube after some solid turns for a 6.33 to go with an earlier 5.17.
But Dora answered with bigger turns on a bigger wave for an 8.33 and a 15.66 total and held on despite a last-minute charge from Colapinto as the hooter sounded that took his heat total to 12.33.
Apart from Hawaiian John John Florence's three titles in 2016, 2017 and 2024, Brazilian surfers have won the men's world championship every year since 2014.
Florida's Caroline Marks beat Australia's Molly Picklum in the first women's title match, sending it to a best-of-three competition.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
