Cover photo: WSL/Dunbar

Italo Ferreira won the second stage of the 2020-2021 world tour and took the lead in the rankings once again in his career. In fun waves, overhead in the heats, somewhat difficult to find in Merewether, Newcastle, Medina surfed the best wave of the final heat but did not find his support. Italo, on the other hand, won with two sevens made in very different ways: Maneuvers in one and a radical aerial in the other.

The final score was 14,94 (7,77+7,17) and 13,27 (8,6+4,67).

During the series, Medina, who breathes and scores six points, was circulating the lineup for more than 30 minutes trying to make the 6,34 he needed and he didn't succeed. He even had a couple of mistakes by Ferreira that gave him priority after paddling in waves he didn't go to.

Medina's inability to find that wave is a great testament to how his fellow countryman from northern Brazil has become his nightmare when the Maresias native expressly stated that his goal is to win the third title and then he will see what he does with his life.

“It’s incredible to compete against all of them, they always push me so hard. What an event! Medina is a machine, he pushes me so hard, it’s going to be a good series of events in Australia. I trained a lot for this and there are three more events yet,” said the newly crowned champion in the interview after leaving the water.

Final day results:
Final
1 – Italo Ferreira (BRA) 14.94
2 - Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.27

Semis
Heat 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.77 defeated Morgan Cibilic (AUS) 14.07
Series 2: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 16.10 defeated Filipe Toledo (BRA) 11.57

Cuartos
Series 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 10.27 defeated Adriano de Souza (BRA) 10.07
Heat 2: Morgan Cibilic (AUS) 10.37 defeated Ryan Callinan (AUS) 10.37
Series 3: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 12.67 defeated Deivid Silva (BRA) 12.40
Heat 4: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 13.83 defeated Conner Coffin (USA) 13.0

This is the world ranking after Newcastle 
1 – Italo Ferreira (BRA) 16,085 pts
2 - Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15,600 pts
3 – John John Florence (HAW) 11,330 pts
4 - Jordy Smith (ZAF) 8,065 pts
4 - Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 8,065 pts
4 - Ryan Callinan (AUS) 8,065 pts