Sept 3 (Reuters) – American Cole Houshmand took the Fiji Pro title ahead of Gabriel Medina in pumping conditions at the Cloudbreak reef on Thursday, while in-form Canadian teenager Erin Brooks earned a second straight world tour title.
Californian Houshmand had lost six times in the first round this year but turned his season around by beating reigning world champion Yago Dora in the quarter-finals and Medina in the title-decider.
His victory in the final was all the more impressive for the fact that Brazilian Medina scored a perfect 10 with his first ride of the final in a six-to-eight foot swell.
“I went on the first wave and when I turned back, he was just getting blown out of a perfect wave. I was thinking ‘what have I done?'” said Houshmand.
Three-times world champion Medina failed to back up his first ride, however, and Houshmand ran out a 16.87-15.17 winner to take his third title in three years on the elite tour.
“I’m pretty speechless. It never really goes the way you expect it,” Houshmand said.
“But if you just put your head down and work hard, and have faith, it’ll all work out.”
Medina’s second place moved him up to fourth in the standings, 6,840 points behind compatriot and championship leader Italo Ferreira with five rounds of the season to go.
Texas-born Brooks also landed a 10-point ride when the eighth stop of the tour kicked off last week and she kept up her fine form to claim back-to-back titles after her win at the Tahiti Pro in mid-August.
The 19-year-old beat five-times world champion Carissa Moore 11.84-9.97 in the semi-finals and clinched her second Fiji Pro title when Australian Isabella Nichols was unable to compete after suffering an injury.
“I love Bella like a sister and I was so (devastated) to hear she got injured,” said Brooks.
“It’s been unreal,” she added of her last two events. “I was having a real shocker (of a season). I was having some disbelief in myself. I’m just so grateful to be where I am right now.”
The two straight wins moved Brooks up to eighth in the women’s rankings, which are led by Hawaiian Moore.
The world tour next moves on to southern California for the Trestles Pro from September 11 to 20.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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