U21 and Master
Liam Dunkerbeck had to fight hard for his victory in the U21 men's event, as Lennart Neubauer proved to be an almost equal opponent. Dunkerbeck and Neubauer both landed excellent double forward loops at the start of the heat. Both were close together until Dunkerbeck landed a radical one-footed forward loop. However, it was Dunkerbeck's outstanding wave rides that made the difference. He deserved to win and remains on course to defend his event title from last year. Neubauer secured second place ahead of his compatriot Gregory Stathapoulos, while Italy's Samuele Ferraro completed the top four.
After the U21 Boy's had finished, the Master's fleet took to the water, with Ben Proffitt, Michael Friedl, Valter Scotto and Sandro Dálessio making it through to the final. Proffitt had put in strong performances in the previous heats, and the PWA commentator followed this up in the final. The Brit landed a solid backloop and stalled forward, but was hard to beat, especially on the wave with frontside 360s and aggressive frontside snaps. Meanwhile, Friedl secured second place after landing a one-foot backloop, relegating Valter Scotto and Sandro Dálessio from Tenerife to third and fourth place.
Men's double elimination
After his surprising elimination in the second round of the single elimination, world champion Marcilio Browne found himself in the unusual situation of starting in the first round of the double elimination. The best thing the Brazilian due to the new formats can hope for this year in Pozo is a shared ninth place. The 35-year-old made a brilliant start to his comeback when he scored 29.63 points, the second-highest score of the event, to progress to the next round. The result could have been very different if he had skied like that in the single elimination. Stathapoulos also qualified from Heat 28.
In the following heat, Adam Warchol landed a backloop off the lip and won ahead of Federico Morisio. Antoine Albert and Mike Friedl also progressed, while Carlos Kiefer Quintana only scored the decisive points in his heat with the final signal
World championship leader Morgan Noireaux also wants to work his way up after his first-round exit. Noireaux made no mistakes at the start of his comeback and won Heat 32 ahead of local Josep Pons. Lennart Neubauer, who had just finished second in the U21, lost his heat against Titouan Flechet, while Dany Bruch prevailed against Takara Ishii.
Slalom X premiere today?
In the last heat of the day, Miguel Chapuis scored the second-highest score of the first round - 24. 53 points - and was thus safely through to the next round, as was Moritz Mauch. With Laurin Schmuth, Henri Kolberg, Nick Spangenberg, Marlon Maethner and Anton Richter, there was a strong line-up of young German riders at the start, but none of them made it past the first round.
The forecast for today still promises a lot of wind. The first possible start for Slalom X is at 12 noon Central European1 time, for Wave at 11 am. However, after the first three days, which were dominated by the wave riders, the slalom X has priority today. This could be extremely spectacular, so it will be worth tuning in to the livestream!
