John John Florence wins second straight World Surf League

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- American professional surfer John John Florence defended successfully the crown of the World Surf League (WSL) Tuesday at the Billabong Pipe Masters, the last stop of WSL tournament, in his hometown Hawaii.

The 25-year-old Hawaii-born surfer entered the day in a two-man race for the world title against Brazil's Gabriel Medina, who was the 2014 WSL champion and surged stunningly at the end of this season.

Medina won straightly at the 9th and 10th stops in October in France and in Portugal respectively. His performances got fans worldwide hyped up for the final and 11th match in Hawaii.

However, after having eliminated former world champion Kelly Slater on the way to the quarterfinals, Medina was halted by France's Jeremy Flores.

Medina's loss granted the final victory to Florence, who collected 8,000 points though losing to Flores in the final match of the day. The champion of each stop has 10,000 points.

Flores beat Forence after scoring 8.33 points on the final wave for his second Pipe Masters title of his career.

On the final ranking list of 2017, Florence has 59,600 points while Medina has 53,700 points on second. Florence won 322,500 U.S. dollars award, while Medina has 374,750 U.S. dollars for more stop wins in the series. Enditem