Surfing-Brazil's Dora, Australia's Picklum win first world titles in Fiji

Brazil's Yago Dora and Australian Molly Picklum surfed with power and precision to win their first world titles on Tuesday, taking out the WSL finals over Americans Griffin Colapinto and Caroline Marks in solid waves at Fiji's famed Cloudbreak reef.

Dora had his best year on surfing's world tour, winning two events and qualifying as the top seed for the one-day, winner-takes-all finals for the top five surfers.

"It's unbelievable. The signs were all there for me. I felt something special this week, since I got here in Fiji, I knew something was going my way," the 29-year-old from Florianopolis said from the water in front of a flotilla of spectator boats.

"It didn't matter whoever I was going to get in the finals, things were going to happen, and I was going to come out to win."

While the waves at Cloudbreak would be a dream for most surfers - well overhead, clean and powerful - conditions were perhaps not quite as big or as challenging as forecast, or what the remote reef can produce on its day.

That probably favoured the Brazilian goofy-footer, riding facing the fast-running waves.

Renowned for his style and his dizzying array of high-risk aerial manoeuvres, Dora quickly found his feet, racking up a 7.33 out of 10 for two surgically sharp turns on his first wave.

Colapinto, who took down Brazil's 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira and South African veteran Jordy Smith on his way to the final, fought his way back against Dora, squeezing out of a tight tube after some solid turns for a 6.33 to go with an earlier 5.17.

But Dora answered with bigger turns on a bigger wave for an 8.33 and a 15.66 total, holding onto the lead despite a last-minute charge from Colapinto as the hooter sounded that took his heat total to 12.33.

Apart