The second day of competition at the Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam 2025 lived up to its promise. The wind machine from Sotavento delivered again, albeit a little weaker than the day before, especially early in the day. Wind shifts and chop demanded full attention, further complicated by a new swell on the course. At the end of the second day, there were four more eliminations for the women and three for the men on the scoresheet. It remains extremely close at the top!
Offringa takes the lead in the women's race
After yesterday's tough day, Sarah-Quita Offringa had doubts as to whether she should continue. But at the end of the second day, she should be much more satisfied. The windsurfing queen from Aruba now leads the field after eight eliminations. She started with two solid second places before extending her lead at the top with two consecutive wins - her first victories since the first race. Femke van der Veen was not quite able to repeat yesterday's performance. Nevertheless, she had another decent day on the water and never placed lower than fourth in today's races. With one second, one third and two fourth places, she lost the pole position, but remains Offringa's closest rival with a gap of 4.3 points.
Justine Lemeteyer picked up where she left off yesterday, picking up two more third places, but then lost some momentum with a fifth and an eleventh place, losing valuable ground on the top two. After a disastrous start the day before yesterday, Jenna Gibson was then able to show her true potential. The Brit started the day in eighth place, but fought her way up to fourth place at the end of the second day and is now just 0.1 points behind third-placed Lemeteyer. Gibson managed a brilliant hat-trick at the start of the day before fighting her way back to third place in Elimination 7 after rounding the first buoy and finishing the day in second place. While Gibson climbed up the rankings, Blanca Alabau and Bobbi-Lynn De Jong slipped down one place to fifth and sixth and fought a close duel with just one point separating them.
Rutkowski strong at the top
Maciek Rutkowski continues to build on his strong start from yesterday. The Pole leads the event by 2.3 points after the first five eliminations. Rutkowski has driven brilliantly so far and started the day with his second win in three races, followed by a solid second place in Elimination 4. In Elimination 5 he finished outside the top two for the first time this week, but he can take this result as a string. Pierre Mortefon remains in the thick of the action in second place, but loses some ground to Rutkowski after today's three eliminations. The reigning Foil and Slalom X World Champion has not yet managed to finish outside the top three. He would normally be leading the rankings with his current performance, were it not for Rutkowski in top form.
After his sixth place in the first elimination of the day, Matteo Iachino knew that he had to win the next one or two races if he wanted to stay in the race. And that's exactly what the Italian did when he took a clear win in Elimination 4, but he still loses an extra point in the rankings - he is now 4.3 points behind the leaders, compared to 3.3 points at the start of the day. Last year's Fuerte winner still has the sixth place from Elimination 4 up his sleeve, but will need to find the recipe for more performance over the next three days, as it doesn't look like the top two are doing anything wrong at the moment.
Jordy Vonk celebrates his first victory in a year
Jordy Vonk enjoyed a great day on the water and secured his first win in an elimination since Gran Canaria last year. It is also the first time that the Flying Dutchman has won an elimination on Fuerte. Vonk put up a phenomenal fight with Mortefon in the final elimination of the day, but put the pedal to the metal in the last gybe to overtake his French rival and secure the win. Vonk now has his sights set on winning more eliminations and trying to break onto the podium - he currently sits 4 points behind Iachino in fourth place. In addition to his win, Vonk also took an excellent second place in Elimination 3, while he is currently taking his seventh place from the fourth elimination as a stripe.
Taty Frans improved by five places, moving up from tenth to fifth. After the shocking quarter-final exit in yesterday's second race, Frans was able to make up for it today and qualify for all three Winners' Finals, where he finished a good day in fourth, fifth and seventh. His compatriot Amado Vrieswijk slipped one place to sixth after missing out on the Winners' Finals for the first time this week in Eliminations 3 and 4. Vrieswijk managed to win both B Finals to limit the damage before ending the day with a sixth place finish as he overtook Frans at the finish line. Nico Prien also slipped down a place. After a somewhat mixed 15th place, however, he improved to tenth and fifth over the course of the day. Benoit Merceur got off to a brilliant start when he secured a place in the top eight in the first two eliminations. Unfortunately, the Frenchman later suffered a significant arm injury that required stitches and a trip to hospital, which unfortunately meant the end of the event for him.
