Brazilian Filipe Toledo Wins Surf Championship Event Near Rio de Janeiro

By Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian Filipe Toledo won on Sunday, June 23rd, the World Surfing Championship event held in Saquarema (WCT Oi Rio Pro) for the second time, with a victory over South African Jordy Smith.

Filipe climbed from sixth to third place in the world ranking, coming close to qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Saquarema was the fifth round of the circuit, which has a total of eleven rounds. After Filipe, the best placed Brazilian was Gabriel Medina, who lost in the quarterfinals, but managed to climb from twelfth to eighth place in the overall ranking.

Despite being in the top ten, Gabriel would not qualify for the Olympics yesterday as he is behind another Brazilian, Italo Ferreira, who was eliminated in Saquarema’s third round and fell from third to sixth place in the ranking.

The world ranking is still led by Hawaiian John John Florence, who came out in the quarterfinals, after injury. In second place is the American Kolohe Andino, who eliminated Gabriel Medina in the quarterfinals.