World Cup Sylt: A game of patience for freestylers and slalom riders

Amado Vrieswijk was probably the unluckiest man of the day at the Citroën Windsurf World Cup on Sylt. First he was eliminated in his first-round heat in freestyle - the wind was simply too weak, the chunk from Bonaire was barely planing. In the afternoon, when it was time to switch to the foil slalom, Vrieswijk was again eliminated in the first round of the double elimination after a premature start.

The fact that the race committee tried for a long time to organise freestyle racing despite the more than moderate conditions is due to the forecast for the next few days: Two days with almost no wind at all, and only on Sunday during the course of the day should it pick up again. Probably not enough time to get a result in freestyle.

Long wait for the switch to slalom

So in the hope of a small thermal, the freestyle was held on to for a long time. Antony Ruenes and Takumi Moriya won their heats, followed by the aforementioned Amado Vrieswijk and Sam Esteve, two riders who would have been expected to finish in the top ten. While the Italian Eugenio Marconi scored more than 28 points against Esteve, Vrieswijk scored just five points in the parallel heat. However, the following heat with Takumi Sugi, Nicolas Akgazciyan, Adrien Bosson and - again on the foil - Balz Müller was cancelled several times.

After a long wait, it was finally the turn of the slalom pilots, who had already prepared themselves. This was especially nice for the spectators, who had flocked to the Brandenburg beach on the public holiday and naturally wanted to see windsurfing action in bright sunshine. But the change came too late, the wind continued to die down. Only three preliminary heats could be completed, and there were repeated delays due to false starts. After a break to change equipment, nothing worked and the fleet was sent back to the beach.

Becker slowed down by algae and back problems

"That was foreseeable," said Nico Prien afterwards, "the gust fields are very small, it's more chance than skill that decides whether you get a good gybe." While Nico's run was cancelled and he is still in the race in the seventh elimination, Michele Becker once again had to retire after the first lap. "I don't know exactly what the reason is yet," he said on the event stage. In his opinion, one of the main reasons is the algae that is still floating in the North Sea (see report from Tuesday "Like through pudding"). A week before the competition, he suffered back pain, which is why he went on the water as little as possible before the races and was unable to optimise his equipment.

The leader here on Sylt, Johan Søe, once again dominated his preliminary round run in an impressive manner right up to the cancellation. Victory in the event is now out of his grasp, but things are getting interesting behind him. Due to his participation in the Olympics, Søe no longer has any World Championship chances, but with his second place here on Sylt for the time being, Pierre Mortefon is the top favourite. The Frenchman has already become world champion in Slalom X on Fuerteventura and has a chance of winning the double, but the decision will not be made until Japan.

Lennart Neubauer within sight of the World Championship title

The World Championship race in freestyle, on the other hand, has almost been decided due to the unpromising wind forecast here on Sylt. Fuerte winner Lennart Neubauer can already plan a party to celebrate his first World Championship title. But Neubauer was the one who kept going out today and wanted to show that it could have been possible to ride in between: "I would like to win with two events, not just one," he said.