Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt 2025: Sol Degrieck wins the wave riding - nerve-wracking waiting game

What a day at the World Cup on Sylt! With the last light of day, Sol Degrieck took victory in the wave riding - a veritable sensation, as the 15-year-old Belgian relegated top favourite Lina Erpenstein to second place. Things initially looked good for Lina in the final, who opened the heat with a great front loop and achieved the highest jump score of the day. But the final was close for a long time, with Pauline Katz from Switzerland and Justyna Sniady competing alongside Erpenstein and Degrieck. Shortly before the end, Degrieck put in the best wave score of the day and never relinquished the lead. Quote Sol

Lina Erpenstein was actually the favourite for the final after Sarah-Quita Offringa's surprising semi-final exit. However, the fact that it wasn't enough to win the World Cup Sylt is not a problem for Lina: "I'm super happy. It was a long week and the conditions here on Sylt are tough. I'm just happy that I was able to show that I can still finish on the podium after my injury."

Early start, long wait

World Championship silver medallist Alexia Kiefer also came to an end in the semi-finals, as she had problems posting good wave scores. Offringa, on the other hand, lacked a good jump in her semi-final to oust Justyna Sniady from second place. This makes the World Championship race extremely exciting, especially as it is not yet entirely clear who from the world's top riders will be travelling to the final in Maui. The other German starters Maria Behrens and Sybille Bode also finished in the semi-finals, having beaten newcomer Nadja Jablonski in the only first-round heat.

This highly exciting women's final was the brilliant finale to a day that had started with great expectations, but in the meantime really tested the patience of the athletes and spectators. The skippers' meeting was still held in the dark and the wave riding was due to start at first light. However, due to technical problems at the PWA, the start had to be postponed until the wind became unstable as announced in the forecast. A cross onshore wind, a river-like current and the well-known nasty shorebreak produced typical Sylt conditions. One heat could be completed - Liam Dunkerbeck and Robby Swift threw Nick Spangenberg and Antony Ruenes out - then the game of nerves began.

Heats cancelled again and again

Heats had to be cancelled and restarted again and again because the wind shifted with every rain shower that passed over Sylt, increasing and decreasing almost at will. "I think we have a record number of heat cancellations today," estimated Lina Erpenstein. In the first round, Anton Richter, who had just won the U21 classification at the Junior World Cup in Cold Hawaii, relegated Antoine Martin to third place in his heat, while Philip Köster made it into the quarter-finals, but only in second place in his heat behind Takuma Sugi.

The thriller began with the start of the quarter-finals. In the meantime, the PWA ticker was much more entertaining than the action on the water: the weather was "properly miserable" and the signal to stop the heat was "the most familiar sound of the day". By the time the first quarter-final started "for the umpteenth time" - for the umpteenth time - it was already late afternoon. Time was running out to finish the waveriding before nightfall, and the organisers had not scheduled any more competitions for tomorrow, Sunday.

From around half past four, the wind stabilised noticeably so that it was possible to go through heat after heat. Shortened to 12 minutes for time reasons, the men raced their first two quarter-finals, then the women their semi-finals and then the men the remaining two heats. "I changed my wetsuit briefly because I was cold, and when I came back I thought 'Is this still the same spot?" commented Dieter van der Eyken on the changeable conditions.

Dunkerbeck and Gil Gherardi fall victim to the Shorebreak

Moritz Mauch and Dieter van der Eyken were particularly eye-catching, both scoring with extremely stylish and radical wave rides. As only one jump counted, the double loops of Köster and co. were rarely seen, but the men showed a veritable firework display of wave 360s. "I had a good 360 in the previous heat, which was cancelled, but now it started with a crash and I had to swim for a long time," reported Mauch afterwards. "But in the end it was really fun, I had two good 360s and a solid backloop." Dieter van der Eyken was a little surprised: "The 360 was good, and then I had another good wave, and that was obviously the deciding factor!" In addition to Mauch and van der Eyken, Alessio Stillrich and Miguel Chapuis also made it through to the semi-finals, with Victor Fernandez winning by a clear margin ahead of Marcilio Browne.

The unlucky ones in the quarter-finals were Liam Dunkerbeck and Marino Gil Gherardi. Both of them lost their feathers in the merciless Sylt shorebreak, which hit the sandbank in a particularly nasty way when the water was running out. The masts of the two Pozo locals buckled almost synchronously, and after a long swim and change of equipment there was not enough time left for good wave scores

The top 3 of the World Cup in the same semi-final

After a difficult day, Marc Paré is definitely the top favourite in the men's event. The Spaniard, who was even in Sylt for training shortly before the World Cup, took both the highest wave score and the best jump score in his quarter-final. In the semi-finals, Paré will then face Brawzinho and Köster - the top three in the World Cup ranking in one heat!

This means there are still three heats left to complete the men's single elimination. Although not actually scheduled, the semi-finals and final are still to be held on Sunday morning. The conditions are unlikely to be any easier then, as the forecast promises a strong storm with onshore winds of up to 40 knots. Sylt makes it exciting until the end.

Yentel Caers is Freestyle World Champion 2025!

The freestylers were officially "released" in the morning, after the Single elimination There will be no more heats yesterday. Yentel Caers is the new freestyle world champion, Lennart Neubauer is the winner of Sylt 2025!