Smith runner-up at MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal
Jordy’s road to his third final appearance in Peniche included epic performances to eliminate Kolohe Andino and Kanoa Igarashi in the quarters and semi-final.
JORDY Smith finished runner-up at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, the penultimate stop on the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) at the weekend.
Italo Ferreira (Brazil) claimed victory in the final bout against Smith, excelling in pumping four-to-six foot surf at Supertubos.
While Smith chipped away with a couple of average scores early on, Ferreira came out swinging in the final, posting a perfect 10 in the first five minutes of the heat. Ferreira went on to extend his lead with another big rotation on his backhand as Smith looked at finding two new scores for an 18.43 (out of a possible 20) combined total with 15 minutes on the clock. As time continued to run down, Smith couldn’t find the waves he needed and Ferreira walked away with the win.
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Jordy’s road to his third final appearance in Peniche included epic performances to eliminate World No. 5 Kolohe Andino (USA) and No. 6 Kanoa Igarashi (Japan) in the quarters and semi-final. Smith came back in the dying minutes of his semi-final matchup against Igarashi with an incredible forehand full rotation to post a 9.33 and belt his ticket for the final.
While the Portugal event win still eludes Smith in 2019, his excellent result comforted his third spot on the Jeep Leaderboard with less than 2,000 points separating the top four surfers, making it one of the closest title races in the history of professional surfing.
