After four days of racing and 15 races, just 0.7 points separated the top two in the overall standings, Jesse Richter and Keno Recke. The winner of the final leg of the tour would therefore be decided in the 16th and final race. After a perfect start, Keno Recke initially took the lead. Jesse Richter knew he would have to give it his all to still secure the overall victory. But at mark two, he took too much of a risk. Whilst attempting to cut inside, he lost control and crashed. This cleared the way for Keno Recke. All he had to do was finish the final race without crashing. Recke didn’t put a foot wrong and, with a second-place finish, secured overall victory at the California Windsurf Cup Pelzerhaken.
“I’m absolutely delighted to finally be at the top of the rankings at a California Windsurf Cup tour stop! The fact that it’s also the season finale and that I’ve secured the overall tour title makes it even better, of course. A big thank you to everyone who believed in me and made this possible,” said Recke, visibly moved, whilst on stage at the prize-giving ceremony. The Kiel native was the only rider to finish the regatta with a podium finish in both disciplines. After four days and a total of 16 races, Keno Recke finished on 57.00 points, putting him at the top of the event standings. Jesse Richter, having been pipped in the final showdown, finished on 62.70 points to take second place.
Nico Prien shows he is a world-class player
On Sunday, World Cup professional Nico Prien joined the field of competitors in Pelzerhaken and impressively demonstrated the current standard of international Fin Slalom. Prien won all four Fin Slalom heats on the final day in commanding fashion. Nevertheless, he had no say in the overall outcome of the regatta, as the Schönberg native lacked the results from the previous days, meaning he was unable to make it right to the top of the leaderboard. Prien, however, used the California Windsurf Cup Pelzerhaken as a training platform for the upcoming IFCA Fin Slalom European Championships and the PWA World Cup for professionals on Sylt.
Leo Richter dominates the Fin Slalom
In Pelzerhaken, the Fin Slalom sailors finally got their money’s worth once again. Up until now, due to poor wind conditions, this discipline had only been able to take place at one of the four stops on the Windsurf Cup tour. At the final, however, there were no fewer than ten elimination rounds. Leo Richter from Kiel put in the strongest performance. He won three races and also scored points with three second places, three third places and one fourth place. In the end, the dentistry student was clearly at the top of the Fin Slalom standings with 11.10 points. With his second place in the final race, Keno Recke not only managed to leap to the top of the overall standings. Recke also improved his score to 20.00 points, thereby displacing Oliver Schott – who had previously been ahead of him – from second place in the Fin Slalom.
With his score of 22.40 points, Oliver Schott was somewhat at odds with his fate, given that the Fin Slalom specialist could look back on an extremely successful regatta. He won two races, thereby demonstrating that even as a Grandmaster over 50, one is far from being past one’s prime. He quite rightly took third place on the podium in the Fin Slalom discipline. Tim Wunderlich and Colin Stutzke were locked in thrilling battles with the three podium contenders over many races. It remained a close contest between the two of them right up to the final race. After ten Fin Slalom races, Tim Wunderlich secured fourth place with 29.00 points, whilst Colin Stutzke rounded off the top five in the Fin Slalom with 31.00 points.
Gidrius Liutkus scores a perfect score in foiling
On the final day, the wind blew onshore at 20 to 28 knots. Whilst this provided a spectacular setting for the Fin Slalom riders, it would have posed a challenge for the foilers, with risks to both riders and equipment. Consequently, no further foiling races were held on the final day. The results from Saturday therefore stood after six foiling heats. The Lithuanian Gidrius Liutkus won five of the six races in this discipline. He finished second on one occasion. As each rider discards their two worst results after five races, Liutkus found himself in the comfortable position of even being able to discard a first-place finish. The Lithuanian thus won the foiling classification with a perfect score of 2.80 points.
Jesse Richter was the only rider who managed to break Liutkus’s dominance in this discipline. Richter’s form in foiling improved steadily over the course of the regatta, and he improved his results from race to race, eventually even winning race six. At the end of the California Windsurf Cup Pelzerhaken, Jesse Richter finished on 9.70 points, securing second place in the foiling discipline. The battle for third place on the podium in the foiling discipline was incredibly exciting. After six races, Keno Recke, the Dane Gustav Permin and Alexander Neubert were neck and neck, each on 15.00 points. All of them scored points almost exclusively through top-five finishes, but each also had two poor results, which they were able to discard. In the end, the decision on third, fourth and fifth places in the foiling discipline had to be settled by a tie-breaker.
The overall ranking rewards versatility
In the overall standings of the California Windsurf Cup, the results from the races in both disciplines are combined into a single ranking. This determines who is the best windsurfer across both disciplines. Whilst specialists often secure podium places in the individual disciplines, this is where the all-rounders come into their own. Alexander Neubert is the epitome of an all-round racer. He failed to secure a podium place in either the fin slalom or foiling disciplines. However, with 74.00 points, he secured third place on the podium in the overall standings. The two youngsters, Mika Henning and Paul Regber, both achieved their best results in the foiling discipline. Both had all their discarded results in the fin slalom. In the end, Mika Henning secured fourth place with 81.70 points. Paul Regber rounded off the top five with 129.00 points.
In the women’s event, Lena Schmäh from Kiel finished ahead of Smilla Petersen from Flensburg and Sophie Getschmann from Berlin. As a special highlight, the BSPC Sports Award from the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was also presented by Jette Waldinger-Thiering, Vice-President of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament, to Lena Schmäh as the best female competitor and Keno Recke as the best male competitor.
All results at online-scoring.com