Switzerland's Heidi Ulrich snatched victory with an outstanding47.16 knots Zara Davis' world speed record - and Melek Toraman from Sylt improved the German women's record to45.37 Knots. Vincent Valkenaers once again narrowly missed out on the men's title with 53.08 knots. World record by Antoine Albeau .
"Ever since I started windsurfing in 2013, my goal has been to break the world speed record." The 37-year-old Swiss Heidi Ulrich is a latecomer to windsurfing and at the same time one of the few women who concentrate fully on speed surfing. Now she has achieved her big goal. On 19 November, she broke the women's world speed record on the channel in Lüderitz on the Namibian coast. With an average speed of 47.06 knots (87.2 km/h) over 500 metres, she broke the old record set by Briton Zara Davis, who clocked 46.49 knots in Lüderitz in 2017.
A glance at the results list of the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, which shows every single run, shows just how much she wanted this record: She raced down the artificial canal a total of 107 times - by far the most of all participants. But hard work alone does not bring a world record. "I was here for over four weeks, we had very little wind at the beginning and I was able to set up my equipment perfectly. It was a great atmosphere, everyone pushed me even harder, even though I was already very ambitious myself, and gave me lots of tips." She first improved the record to 46.87 knots and then actually broke the 47-knot barrier.
I would never have made it without the help of Christian Arnold, Vincent Valkenaers and Nils Bach!" Heidi Ulrich
Andy Laufer, who was unable to set any best times himself due to back problems, had already predicted this a few days earlier: "Heidi will certainly break the 47 knots, maybe even the 48 knots and will certainly soon be travelling at over 50 top speed." She fell just short of 50 knots - but after all, people always need new goals.
New German record for Melek Toraman
Not quite as hard-working on the speedstrip, but no less impressive and successful was the Sylt native Melek Toraman on the speed channel. As a newcomer to the speed channel - and to speed surfing in general - she previously had great respect for the pitfalls of the narrow water channel in the desert sand. But her times didn't really show that: She broke Anne Schindler's German record in just her third run and then improved it again in the fourth to an official 45.37 knots. "Sometimes I felt like the sail was going to rip right out of my hand. It's a real thrill to sail down the channel at such a high speed. At the finish I slammed into it so hard that it tore everything out of my hand, even my GPS device was off."
The men had also come to Lüderitz with big goals. After Vincent Valkenaers narrowly missed Antoine Albeau's record by 0.01 knots at the last Lüderitz Speed Challenge, his goal for 2022 was clear: "I want to break the record this time," said the Belgian. "The channel is better than ever, even if the water is pushed out a bit when there's a lot of wind and it's very flat. But the record is in - that's my goal."
The hopes of all the record aspirants, including Hans Kreisel, Gunnar Asmussen from Flensburg and Dutchman Twan Verseput, were pinned on the last weekend of the four-week event. Record conditions should then finally prevail.
The channel is the best we've ever had. All we need is an ar... full of wind and then we have to get stuck in." Twan Verseput
Björn Dunkerbeck was already back home with an outstanding best performance of 50.27 knots. It was almost tragic that Vincent Valkenaers missed the Albeau record by a hair's breadth (less than 0.2 knots). Valkenaers caught the gust of the day and at 53.08 knots was over two knots faster than second-placed Hans Kreisel, but the wind was again blowing too hard across the canal, so that the record was ruined by choppy water, especially in the last third of the course.
Asmussen not close to record, Laufer injured
For the German men, the Challenge was rather mixed. While Gunnar Asmussen didn't get anywhere near the world record (but he did secure third place in the overall standings with 50.71 knots), Andy Laufer wrote off his trip to Namibia as more of a "holiday": "At the beginning I was struggling with gastrointestinal problems and then at the end with extremely severe back pain, so I couldn't even start on the last day. But I had one of the best foil days of my life at Diaz Point."
Canal newcomer Nils Bach was surprised by the course: "I had come here with completely different expectations. At the beginning, I thought it would be much easier to ride down the canal and improve my speed. I didn't expect it to be so much work to find the right trim for the channel. It's great fun, but I thought it was much smoother on the channel and not so choppy - especially with the very rough wind we had." Nevertheless, he broke his personal record with 47.3 knots.
