Gabriel Medina is now a three-time WSL world champion ©Getty Images

Gabriel Medina has been crowned World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour champion for a third time after beating Felipe Toledo in an all-Brazilian final - but shark sightings delayed Carissa Moore's coronation in the women's showdown.

Medina, who went straight into the title match at Lower Trestles on the California coast by virtue of topping the WSL standings, won the best-of-three-heats final 2-0.

His two-wave score in the opening heat was 16.30 - compared to Toledo's 15.70 - and a Flintstone flip in the second heat helped Medina secure the crown.

Medina scored 9.03 for that spectacular wave, and the two-wave score was 17.53 compared to Toledo's 16.36.

Saving the best for last, 9.03 and 17.53 were the best single-wave and two-wave scores of the day.

Toledo had come through two contests - versus American Conner Coffin and Olympic champion Italo Ferreira of Brazil - to reach the title match.

Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina stormed to victory off the California coast ©Getty Images
Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina stormed to victory off the California coast ©Getty Images

Moore, the American Olympic champion out of Hawaii, faced Tatiana Weston-Webb in the women's title match.

A second shark sighting of the day delayed that contest, with the score 1-1, but Moore was not put off and produced four waves scoring 8.00 or more over the final two heats to seal a come-from-behind win.

Moore was the defending WSL champion and topped the regular-season standings, while Weston-Webb finished second and was seeking to come the first Brazilian woman to win the WSL's world title.

Instead it is Moore who wears the crown, for a fifth time, and is now one of only three women to reach that milestone.