The third day on Fuerte required a little patience, as the wind was rather weak and gusty in the morning. By 2 p.m., however, the conditions had improved enough for the double eliminations to continue. And at the end of the day, only the five best women and six best men were still in the running for this year's Fuerteventura freestyle title. The wind was not quite as strong as on the first two days, but overall the conditions were probably the best so far, as some small kickers on the inside provided the world's best freestylers with ideal ramps to show off their skills in the air with sails between 4.0 and 4.8.
Elena Dominick from Germany makes a strong World Cup debut
Elena Dominick and Lina Schmied both fought their way through the first round of the double elimination and fought a duel for fifth and sixth place after defeating Bijou Shahmirian and Marine Hunter. The German Elena Dominick was able to prevail against her Austrian opponent and will now next face runner-up Maaike Huvermann, who will also be hoping for a comeback after her fourth place in the single elimination.
Antony Ruenes with short fireworks display, Youp Schmit finishes in the top six
Youp Schmit ended Steven Van Broeckhoven's comeback in the double elimination. The Belgian, who finished fourth overall in 2023, had really got going after first eliminating George Grisley before winning a close duel against Kiri Thode to reach the heat against Schmit. In the end it was Youp who won by a margin of 2.2 points, mainly thanks to his three flawless tricks on the inside.
In the same round, Antony Ruenes delivered the run with the highest score of the day to date, putting a stop to the comeback of another former world champion, Amado Vrieswijk. The Frenchman scored 37 points after producing an almost flawless run. The best of a series of impressive moves were a glided pasko and a technical air funnel into burner. This win for Ruenes set up a duel between him and Youp Schmit, but after the fireworks of the previous heat, the wind didn't really play ball and it was a bit of a disappointment as Ruenes struggled to fill his score sheet, while Schmit did what he had to do to progress.
Out for Testa despite spectacular freestyle show
The 29-year-old Schmitt from Bonaire will now face Balz Müller in the battle for fifth and sixth place after the Swiss rider came out on top in an incredibly close heat against style master Jacopo Testa. At the end of their 8-minute heat, the two freestyle wizards were separated by just half a point, but the decision went in Müller's favour.
In his previous heat against Antoine Albert, Testa had scored the highest score of the day with 37.5 points after showing an impeccable run with fantastic manoeuvres, wowing the judges with air kabikuchis and scopus as well as a massive spock into culo. Unfortunately, Testa couldn't quite repeat this performance against Müller, finishing the competition in seventh place together with Ruenes.
17-year-old Takumi Moriya makes Vrieswijk sweat
While the former world champion Vrieswijk was disappointed that he was unable to hold off Ruenes, the man from Bonaire also had a bit of luck beforehand, as he landed the necessary Pasko in the final seconds of the heat against the impressively tricky U20 Youth World Champion Takumi Moriya to secure a place in the top 10. Vrieswijk's focus will now shift to racing as he will compete in both Slalom-X and Foil Slalom. He finishes this year's freestyle contest in 9th place, along with fellow countryman Kiri Thode, Frenchman Nicolas Akgazciyan and New Caledonian Antoine Albert, who earlier in the day pulled off a great comeback against Gollito Estredo when he produced an incredible finish in Heat 27b to turn the heat on its head and end the 9-time World Champion's comeback.
Only a few hours of competition time left to complete the double eliminations
The forecast for today looks worse, but with a bit of luck and only a few hours of competition left, the double eliminations should hopefully be completed. The freestyle fleets will not meet for the skippers meeting until 12 noon today, and the action will continue from 12.30pm at the earliest. If the conditions are right, be sure to switch to the Livestreamto see if Sarah-Quita Offringa and Adrien Bosson can successfully defend their single elimination victories, or if one of their rivals can mount a comeback to knock them off the throne.