Olympic surfing: Early favourites overcome wipeouts, tricky waves and unpredictable weather in Tahiti

Weather and wave conditions have been tricky in French Polynesia

(Getty Images)

Brazil’s world champion Filipe Toledo survived a scare against New Zealander Billy Stairmand at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, scoring a near-perfect wave to win their second-round clash, while France’s Johanne Defay overcame injury to advance in Tahiti.

Conditions at the venue of Teahupo’o varied hugely, with the morning plagued by rain, smaller waves and wind squalls that threatened to send beachside umbrellas into the South Pacific.

As the wind died in the afternoon, Toledo looked to be in trouble after Stairmand scored an 8.17 for a nice backhand barrel, with long lulls between waves ratcheting up the pressure.

But Toledo, who has struggled in Teahupo’o’s powerful left-handers, held his nerve to ride over the tricky foamball inside the tube and exit for a 9.67 out of 10 that drew cheers from spectators in the channel.

Australian Jack Robinson, a master Teahupo’o tube-rider since his teens, also benefited from the improving conditions.

He scored the best wave of the day - a powerful, spitting tube for a 9.87 to beat Peru’s Lucca Mesinas and get his Olympic campaign back on track after an unexpected round one loss.

“It was special afternoon,” said Robinson. “Just looking back, seeing everybody, seeing the sun shining and seeing the waves, there wasn’t too much else going on.

“I just was really happy to be out there.”

Earlier in the day, France’s Defay recovered from a nasty wipeout to eliminate Australian Molly Picklum in tough morning conditions.

Defay came up bleeding from the head and needed a medical assessment after a heavy wipeout in the first round on Saturday.

“I went over the falls and I went straight onto the coral, so I had four stitches and they gave me all the tests for concussion and stuff like that,” she said. “They made me do it this morning again, and now they’ve been clear that I haven’t got a concussion, so we’re stoked.”

Surfers who won Saturday’s opening three-person heats in pumping surf and glorious tropical weather got to skip the day’s competition and the first head-to-head eliminations.

Johanne Defay (Getty Images)

Quirks of Olympic qualification have meant early match-ups between some of the world’s best female surfers - with more big names set to meet in round three.

Picklum was sanguine about the draw, the conditions and her loss.

“I think coming and debuting has been my biggest learning, that it’s something I want to be a part of and I hope surfing stays in (the Olympics) for more years to come so I get another chance to potentially bring home gold in surfing.”

China’s Yang Siqi got the better of Peru’s Sol Aguirre to advance to round three, having shown her mettle in larger conditions during round one and in training.

“I never felt afraid, just excited,” said Yang, who lives in the island province of Hainan but comes from Sichuan, far from the coast.

“My hometown is inland, so there’s only mountains, no sea, so surfing is quite strange to my people there.”

Reuters