Joan Duru surfing a wave on July 7, 2020 (illustration). – Alain Coudert / sportsvisio
French surfing is doing well and even very well, good news as the Tokyo Olympics will be the first to integrate this discipline. The French Joan Duru won Sunday the gold medal in the men’s category at the Worlds in San Salvador, allowing the Tricolores to also win the team classification.
In La Bocana, Salvador’s beach in Central America on the Pacific coast, Joan Duru, 32, won ahead of the Japanese Kagoa Igarashi, silver medalist, and another Frenchman, Jérémy Flores, in bronze.
Australian Sally Fitzgibbons leads the women’s race
The event, organized by the International Surfing Association (ISA), was the last opportunity to grab places for the Olympics. However, despite his good result Joan Duru will not be on the trip to Japan, the French delegation is already complete with Jérémy Flores, Michel Bourez, Johanne Defay and Pauline Ado.
In the team event, the podium dominated by France is completed by Japan, in silver, and Portugal, in bronze. In the women’s category, it was the Australian Sally Fitzgibbons who won the gold medal, ahead of the Portuguese Yolanda Sequeira and Teresa Bonvalot, who at the same time won their Olympic qualification.