Italo Ferreira will have to accomplish an epic feat if he wants to lift the World Surfing Champion trophy for the second time. Entering the finals as the fifth-best player in the rankings, he will literally have to beat all four of his rivals to win the trophy, something no one has ever managed to do. In 2022, the Brazilian was in a similar situation and came close, only losing the last competition. So now you know what to do to repeat the story of two years ago, only changing the last chapter.
“I’m the only stupid one in the finals, so there’s more wave for me, because everyone looks right and ends up left. I have the ability to go in both directions at any time. That was the game he said two years ago and I managed to suffocate the opponent at all times, both left and right, I wasn’t stuck by just one type of wave,” said Italo Ferreira, in a press conference held directly from California, United States. home of the finals since 2021. Pippo is the surfer who stands on the board with his right foot in front. Whoever does the opposite is called regular.
One day shot
The finals bring together the top five elite surfers of the season. The format is simple. The fifth and fourth heats open the competition and whoever wins the heat faces the third. The winner of this face-off takes second place and then first place in the final. The decision is best of three heats. In other words, to be champion, Italo will have to win at least five heats, with the first three in a row. “It’s a one-day attempt. I’ll start at 8:30 in the morning and the championship will end at 3:00 in the afternoon. I’ll compete at high performance,” he said. “You try to kill right at the beginning, so I can save energy to go from one to one and keep the pace until the end. I need to be smart in some moments and play until the end.”
Stronger
“I am much stronger mentally and physically. This gives me the advantage in maneuvers of having a little more explosiveness. Also being a little more intelligent”, continues Italo Ferreira. “I lived this match two years ago, I went from the first to the last round against the world number one. In the end I lost, but I was very happy with what happened and that will serve as an experience to exploit this time. year. There are many options here. Both right and left. It depends a little on the tide, the left one works better, the right one is shorter, the right one is better, the left one has less block”, he adds.
Champion spirit
In 2022, Italo finished fourth and went race after race until reaching the final, losing to Filipe Toledo. He defeated Japanese Kanoa Igarashi and Australians Ethan Ewing and Jack Robinson before facing Filipinho. Potiguar was champion in 2019, the last championship before the creation of the Finals. In 2020, the circuit was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first three editions of the Finals, only Brazil in the men’s category. First with Gabriel Medina and the next two with Filipe Toledo.
Italo is also the first Olympic surfing champion, he won in Tokyo-2020. Now, in 2024, he did not go to the Paris Games, at least not to compete. He was in Tahiti, the scene of the competition, to commentate for a television channel. “It was a different moment and I was able to analyze how they (the opponents) play the game. Before I did not have this opportunity, because when you are in competition, you are very automatic, you only do self-analysis,” he says.
Source: Terra
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