Reunionese Johanne Defay, world No.3, will miss the first two stages of the professional surfing circuit season in Hawaii due to a right foot injury, she announced Thursday on social networks.
Defay, 29 years old and the only Frenchwoman qualified on the Championship Tour (CT), fractured “five weeks ago » the metatarsals of the right foot by falling in training and begins rehabilitation on Friday at the CERS in Capbreton (Landes), she explained in a video posted on Instagram.
«It’s official, I won’t be in Hawaii for the competitions. It feels a little weird to me, it’s the first (steps) that I’m going to miss in my entire career“, she regretted, after ten years spent in the elite of world surfing.
The Billabong Pro Pipeline (January 29-February 10) and the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach (February 12-23), Hawaii, kick off CT 2023, whose season-ending top eight overall finishes are qualifiers for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Reached by phone byAFPJohanne Defay explained “hope for a return in mid-March for the 3rd stagewhich will take place in Portugal (8 to 16 March). The Frenchwoman had finished 3rd in the general classification at the end of the 2022 season.
