Jack Robinson, Molly Picklum make final five to vie for World Surf League crown

Aussie Olympic silver medallist Jack Robinson and Paris teammate Molly Picklum have clinched a spot in the final five and both will vie for a world title in California next month after successful performances at the final tour stop in Fiji.

But fellow Aussie Ethan Ewing will have to win his quarter-final showdown when surfing resumes, while Tyler Wright could win the Fiji event, having made the semi-finals, but it won’t be enough for the two-time world champion to jump from 10th on the rankings.

Picklum avenged her Olympic loss to France’s Johanne Defay with a quarter-final win at Cloudbreak that locked the 21-year-old in for a second year in a row and she’ll get a shot at her maiden world title in California next month.

“Johanne got me in the Olympics and sent me home. I wasn’t that keen to let that happen again,” Picklum said after charging into the semi-finals in Fiji before officials put the competition on hold.

“To clinch that spot, I’m really stoked. It was all up in the air, I couldn’t break those quarter-final finishes, I kept coming short.

“So to break that here, final event, under pressure, it’s, I don’t know, it fills your heart. I am absolutely pumped.”

Robinson, who won Australia’s second Olympic medal in surfing after contesting the final in Tahiti, secured his spot in the top three rankings by making the quarter-finals and will also get to push for the title in Fiji when surfing resumes.

“Feels so good, feel so happy to be there,” he said after his round-of-16 win over Connor O’Leary.

“What a journey. The last three years I have been in the finals, it’s special, right where I am meant to be. I feel like, making it happen.”

Ewing is sitting in the final-five bubble, in fifth spot in the rankings ahead of his quarter-final clash with Hawaiian Barron Mamiya, needing to progress as deep into the event as possible to ensure he joins Robinson in California.

Wright, who also surfed in the Olympics, won her way through to the semi-final where she will take on Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb for a place in the final.