Sarah-Quita Offringa is on the verge of defending her world title in Slalom X and winning her 26th title in total. SQ dominated the third day of competition on Fuerte with three wins in a row. Although she was not the fastest rider, Offringa was able to avoid problems and maintain the lead at crucial moments. Now with five wins in a row, she has built up an almost unassailable lead of 15.8 points in the overall standings.
Justine Lemeteyer overtook Femke van der Veen into second place overall with two second places. However, the two are separated by just 0.6 points. Van der Veen had her weakest day to date with a tenth, an eighth and a fourth place, but remains in the race for the podium. Jenna Gibson struggled with both bad luck and her own mistakes. In elimination 9, she crashed going into the first jibe when she was in the lead. In Elimination 10, she was cleared by Blanca Alabau and fought her way back to fifth place. In the final heat of the day, Gibson again built up a clear lead, but crashed coming out of the third gybe and finished third. She still has a chance of finishing on the podium with the third scratch score after elimination 12.
Bobbi-Lynn De Jong achieved her best ever finish on the World Tour - second in Elimination 10 when she managed to avoid the scramble! 17-year-old Charlotte Philip, who is making her debut on Fuerte, claimed her first top-four finish in Elimination 9.
Three-way battle in the men's competition with Rutkowski, Mortefon and Vonk
It could hardly be more exciting in the men's competition: Only 1.3 points separate the top three, while fourth place is just 3.3 points behind. The leader Maciek Rutkowski experienced his weakest day to date with an eighth and a ninth place. Nevertheless, he was still able to maintain the overall lead thanks to strikes. Things got off to a good start, with the Pole qualifying for the Winners Final in Elimination 6, while his toughest opponent Pierre Mortefon was only involved in the small final. However, Rutkowski went into the water at the jibe and had to make do with eighth place. In the quarter-finals of Elimination 7, Rutkowski had a stroke of luck when he missed the "sausage" but somehow made it through to the next round - also thanks to only six riders in his heat. After a collision with Amado Vrieswijk in the semi-final, Rutkowski ultimately missed out on a place in the Winners' Final and now has to prepare for the last two days.
Jordy Vonk, on the other hand, put in his strongest performance to date. With a victory in Elimination 6 and a second place in Elimination 7, he moved up from fourth to second place overall. The Dutchman is now just one point behind Rutkowski and has the chance to win the World Cup for the first time. Like Rutkowski, Mortefon did not have his best day on the water as he failed to finish in the top three in both eliminations for the first time this week. Mortefon also took both results as strings and slipped down one place to third, but remains in contention for the title.
Iachino with an ace up his sleeve, Prien with luck
Matteo Iachino is lurking in fourth place and has good cards for the final sprint with a very consistent performance. The Italian has a trump card up his sleeve, as his current second stringer is a third place, which puts him in a strong position compared to the top three, who all know that any mistake will now cost them more points. Iachino knows he has to try and improve his top speed, but after two more third places yesterday he is in the best position to attack the top ahead of the final two days.
Taty Frans remains in fifth place, but the man from Bonaire has cemented that position after achieving his best ever result in Elimination 6 - second place - and topping it off with a fourth place in Elimination 7. Frans looked like he was enjoying the conditions as he confidently took big jumps and headed for the 'sausage' where many other riders backed off. Vrieswijk and Nico Prien remain in sixth and seventh place in the rankings. The latter was lucky that he was unharmed after a nasty collision with Ingmar Daldorf as the two crossed the start line in the final of Elimination 7 - fortunately, both were fine.