TEAHUPO‘O, Tahiti >> Tahitian Kauli Vaast surfed a near-perfect final to claim the gold medal for France in the men’s event at Teahupo’o on Monday, leaving Australian tube-riding maestro Jack Robinson with silver.

Caroline Marks of the United States added Olympic gold to her 2023 world title with a tight victory over Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb in the women’s final.

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Brazil’s Gabriel Medina won the bronze medal in the men’s event with France’s Johanne Defay finishing third in the women’s.

The 22-year-old Vaast, who grew up in Tahiti’s Teahupo’o and has caught some of the best waves of all-time at the perfect reef pass, quickly established dominance and never gave it up, sparking celebrations on spectator boats in the channel and on shore.

“The dream came true. I can’t believe it right now but I just made history – for me, for all Tahitians, for Polynesia and France,” Vaast said, adding that he had lost his voice screaming back at local fans as he did a victory lap on a jet ski.

“A lot of people surf and it’s part of our culture … I’m proud to say that surfing is born in Polynesia, so it means a lot for me.”

As Vaast collected his gold medal, a rooster – a symbol of France – ran around the presentation area and a Polynesian conch shell was blown.

After Teahupo’o delivered the greatest day of Olympic surfing competition last week, waves for the morning of finals day failed to live up to expectations, with infrequent swells and tricky winds.

But conditions improved as the day progressed and the men’s finals were held in clean, overhead barrels at “The End of the Road”, as Teahupo’o is also known.

MARKS HOLDS NERVE

Vaast, sporting a mohawk haircut courtesy of his younger brother, drew first blood, scoring a 9.5 out of 10 after pumping through a long, deep tube.

Robinson followed with a slightly smaller version, but came out after the wave spit a blast of water and air into the channel to score a 7.83.

Vaast quickly got another excellent score, an 8.17 for some searing turns to total 17.67 and leaving the Australian chasing a near perfect score.

Robinson had looked like the man to beat after knocking out Medina and American John John Florence in earlier rounds but the West Australian, who employs meditative breathing techniques and named his first son Zen, could not will another wave to come and had to settle for silver.

Waves were infrequent for the women’s final too, with a flurry at the end almost giving Weston-Webb enough to snatch victory from Marks. The Brazilian came up just short, however, finishing with a two-wave total of 10.33 to Marks’ 10.50

Earlier, the women’s semi-finals were filled with drama as Marks and Defay finished with their two-wave totals tied, the American squeaking through courtesy of the highest scoring single wave.

In semi-final two, Brisa Hennessy suffered a brain fade and dropped in on Weston-Webb without priority, incurring a penalty that cost the Costa Rican all the points from her second scoring wave.