On a quiet day for waves at Tahiti's Teahupo’o surf break, USA's Caroline Marks edged Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb for the gold medal in the Olympics women's surfing finals.
The drama of the competition extended until after time ran out as the athletes awaited judgement on the decisive final ride by Weston Webb. Her score wasn't enough to overtake Marks.
The top and bottom scores are thrown out for each ride. The surfers’ top two scores on a scale of 0-10 are combined, and the highest total score wins.
With sets few and far between early in the final, neither surfer attempted to catch a wave until the 24-minute mark of the competition, and neither posted a score better that 0.5.
Minutes later, Marks secured the first significant score of the final with a successful barrel ride with 17 minutes remaining, putting pressure on Weston Webb to log a score.
The ride earned a score 7.5 from the judges and ultimately proved to be the difference for the gold medal.
Time then ran out with surfers waiting for the judges' verdict on Webb's second ride. She needed a 4.68 to win.
France’s Johanne Defay wins bronze medal in women’s surfing over Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy in the other semifinal.