After the men raced their single elimination in spectacular conditions yesterday ( Click here for the highlights ), the ladies had to make do with much less today. Waves that sometimes didn't reach above knee height and significantly less wind, especially on the inside, made many heats a challenge. As the day progressed, the duration was extended to 16 minutes and only one single wave ride was included in the classification.
First of all, it was necessary to wait in the morning until the conditions were suitable for competition. There were few surprises in the opening round, where Maria Behrens lost to Iballa Moreno. Alexia Kiefer-Quintana was unlucky to come up against Lina Erpenstein and was sent straight back to land at her home spot. The World Championship bronze medallist from last season had the much better jumps on the scoresheet, and even an excellent wave from Alexia was not enough.
A perfect start for Lina Erpenstein, who is taking part in a World Cup for the first time this season and has set her sights high. But her next opponent was none other than Iballa Moreno, who made full use of her home strength and caught one of the few decent waves. Erpenstein is now in fifth place after the single elimination and, like so many other starters, is hoping for the double. After all, she is currently leading the women's ranking for the Red Bull Rockets, the highest jump of the event, with 5.3 metres!
Meanwhile, Justyna Sniady had a much easier time of it, only needing a few points against the young Spaniard Lucia Trivino Delgado to reach the semi-finals. There, the Polish player was defeated by last year's winner Iballa Moreno, whose sister Daida won her semi-final against Sarah-Quita Offringa .
Exciting final between Daida Moreno and Sarah-Quita Offringa
The two best windsurfers in the world with wind from the left, according to commentator Ben Proffitt, met in the final. In marginal conditions, Daida got off to the better start, while Sarah-Quita had to chase a deficit for almost the entire heat. According to rumours, Daida had let it be known that this World Cup would be her last contest. In any case, she did everything she could to say goodbye with a win. But Sarah-Quita showed her class and fought her way back to within 0.26 points, a single good wave ride could have put her ahead at any time. But all the promising waves ran themselves to death, all the ramps were less good than they looked, so Daida stayed in front until the end and secured the win.
In consistently difficult conditions, the men's double elimination then took place in the late afternoon. Nick Spangenberg had to take to the water in the first heat, where he lost to José Romero. Moritz Mauch, on the other hand, managed to beat Marc Alonso and will face Hayata Ishii in the next round. Laurin Schmuth lost to Takuma Sugi, while Henri Kolberg put in a strong performance in the final heat of the day against Fiji winner Baptiste Cloarec was successful.
According to Ben Proffitt, slalom is on the programme tomorrow, so we can look forward to more spectacular action in Pozo!
Results Single Elimination Ladies
- 1 Daida Moreno
- 2. Sarah-Quita Offringa
- 3 Iballa Moreno
- 4th Justyna Sniady
- 5 Lina Erpenstein
- 5 Isabel Trivino Delgado
- 5 Sol Degrieck
- 5. Maria Navarro Morales
