The second day of the 2023 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam had a bit of everything, as the races started in light winds - 14 to 18 knots - and relatively flat water, before the Sotavento wind machine gradually picked up during the afternoon, bringing gusts of over 30 knots again, while a small swell kicked in, giving the world's best racers extra to contend with. This led to some extremely heavy crashes and a lot of broken equipment, but fortunately no one was seriously injured. In the end, two surfers dominated the action on the second day: Sarah-Quita Offringa and Nicolas Goyard both took the hat-trick.
Novelty in the women's race - disqualification due to "Dangerous Sailing"
There was an upset in the women's elimination five. Spain's Blanca Alabau, who is currently leading the world rankings, went into the jibe a little over-motivated and knocked Jenna Gibson down hard, but fortunately without any serious consequences. The jury deemed this to be a dangerous manoeuvre and disqualified Alabau in this heat and fined her an additional 250 euros. Unimpressed by this, Alabau went on to take two second and two third places. Sarah Quita also had a scary moment in heat six, shortly before the finish line she got a spinout at high speed and crashed heavily - unfortunately on the wrong side of the finish buoy: eleventh place instead of second. But the exceptional athlete from Aruba was able to cope with the slip - she won the three following finals and is in a commanding lead ahead of Marion Mortefon and Justine Lemeteyer.
Goyard storms to the top
After a less than ideal start yesterday, Nicolas Goyard shifted up a gear today and stormed to the top of the rankings with a flawless hat-trick. The Frenchman had started the day in seventh place, but after a perfect day he now holds all the aces. Goyard, who had set a new foil GPS record here the day before - a maximum of 41 knots - was visibly faster than the rest of the field - his foil is obviously perfectly adapted to the Fuerte conditions.
But as good as Goyard was today, nothing has been decided yet with three more days of slalom to go. "The Beast" Johan Soe, who was unable to attend the World Cup in Pozo due to his studies, is only 0.9 points behind him. The Danish giant lived up to his nickname and finished the second day with two fourth places and a second place. As a result, he climbs one place to second place and not only has the chance of his first podium, but also of victory if Goyard makes a mistake.
Amado Vrieswijk started the day in second place and took the initiative with a second and a third place in the first two eliminations. However, Vrieswijk failed in the semi-finals of the fifth elimination and missed out on a place in the Winners' Final for the first time this week, dropping to third place despite winning the B final. Like Soe, Vrieswijk will remain in the race should Goyard slip up.
Becker and Prien on an upward trend
After his second place the day before, Michele Becker was eliminated directly in his first run. But the World Cup rookie showed incredible nerves of steel and was clearly not fazed by such setbacks. In the next two eliminations, he made it back to the final and achieved outstanding results with second and fifth place. In elimination four, he even tried to attack the leading Nicolas Goyard with a spectacular manoeuvre, overtook him on the inside of the jibe and went onto the home straight in first place, with his first World Cup victory in sight. But Goyard caught the Kieler with outstanding speed. But Becker still has the best chance of a place at the top if the second stringer comes into play and he can eliminate his 26th place. Becker is currently in eighth place
The second day also went better for Nico Prien, albeit not optimally. Some bad luck and his own small mistakes - which are costly in the top group - prevented an even better placing. Nevertheless, the man from Schönberg climbed to tenth place overall with two finals (6th and 8th place).
Less wind forecast today - but who knows
According to the forecasts, the wind is supposed to be a little less this Saturday at around 20 knots, but that's certainly enough for racing. And who knows, the Sotavento jet sometimes has its own rules. The race starts again at 12 noon and then the excellent livestream will also be back at the start.
