Gabriel Medina has knocked Morgan Cibilic out of the Narrabeen Cup with two sensational rides in the dying seconds of their quarter final this morning.
Cibilic was in front with just 30 seconds ago after paddling away from Medina despite having priority, and letting the Brazilian off the hook to land two aerials in a row and to steal it from the Novocastrian.
His final wave of a 9.30 and 6.67 defeated Cibilic's 8.67 and 4.0, knocking Ciblic out for an equal fifth place.
Cibilic will likely rue his decision to allow Medina the freedom to catch his final waves, when he was in priority position to block at least one of them, at a time when he was holding a narrow lead.
He scored what the commentators described as the "biggest barrel of the event" and again showed he belongs with the world's best.
Medina surfed 11 waves to just three from Cibilic.
Although Medina had dropped a 6.27 that put him ahead, (but had not been announced at that point) it was the 9.30 buzzer beater, that Cibilic may have been able to take - and improve his second wave of a middling 4.0 - had he stuck closer to his rival.
It was this wave that sealed the heat for the Brazilian.
The commentators said Ciblic "did pretty much everything right in that heat, but just left a tiny crack in the door, and Gab (Medina) just stuck his foot in it . . ."
EARLIER
MORGAN Cibilic continued his giant-killing form at the Narrabeen Cup, knocking Hawaiian dual world champion John John Florence out of the running for the second contest in a row.
In the quarter-finals Cibilic will meet another dual world champion in Brazilian Gabriel Medina, the surfer who stopped the Novocastrian in the semi-finals of the Newcastle Cup.
Medina and Cibilic laid down the biggest scores of yesterday's competition, in a day of upsets that saw a lot of highly-ranked men, including tour leader Italo Ferreira, knocked out of the event.
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Ryan Callinan was another to drop out yesterday, falling to wild card Reef Heazlewood, who later lost to US surfer Griffin Colapinto in the final round of 16 heat of the day.
The women's round of 16 saw one upset, with Aussie Tyler Wright losing to Frenchwoman Johanne Defay, but the other seven heats went to the higher seeded surfers.
The women's quarter-final match-ups will be world number one and Newcastle winner Carissa Moore against Aussie Keely Andrew, fellow Aussie Sally Fitzgibbons against Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb, US surfer Caroline Marks against Defay, and Aussie Stephanie Gilmore against American Courtney Conlogue.
In the men's the quarters are Portugal's Frederico Morais against Aussie Ethan Ewing, Medina against Cibilic, American Conner Coffin against Japan's Kanoa Igarashi and Brazilian Yago Dora against American Conner Coffin.
World Surf League commentators rarely criticise wave quality but the surf at Narrabeen has been on the whole smaller than at Merewether, and arguably less consistent.
But the best of the best make even bad waves look good, and Cibilic's continued form has become one of the talking points of the contest.
He beat Florence 15.7 (7.17 and 8.53) to 11.77 (6 and 5.77) and his 8.53 - a left-hander with two big re-entries - was the second-highest score of the day after a 9 to Medina for an enormous air.
Lead WSL commentator Joe Turpel said it was the first time that Florence had lost consecutive heats to the same competitor since Brazilian Caio Ibelli beat the Hawaiian at Bells Beach and Margaret River in 2016.
Co-commentator Richie Lovett said: "To do it once is incredible, to do it twice is downright amazing."
Finals day is today. The women's quarter finals opened the final day's competition."
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