World Cup Sylt: "Like through pudding" - Foil slalom with seaweed brake

They are thin, around 5 to 10 centimetres long and reddish-brown: large carpets of algae on the North Sea make foil racing a challenge on the fourth official day of competition at the Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt. "It's like driving through pudding," said Marion Mortefon, describing the feeling on the foil. Bruno Martini estimated that he was three to four knots slower than normal here off Sylt due to the seaweed brake. With an offshore easterly wind with gusts of up to 30 knots far out, the algae made it particularly difficult to sail consistently: "It's really difficult with full pressure in the sail but very little power from the foil," said Justine Lemeteyer.

However, the Frenchwoman coped best with this, winning all four women's races of the day. "It got a bit easier in the second race and my starts were better than yesterday," she reported afterwards. Lemeteyer leads the event classification by a clear margin, with Blanca Alabau and Marion Mortefon fighting exciting duels behind her. The Spaniard came out on top three times today, but Mortefon remains in second place in the overall standings thanks to second strings: "We still have six races left here, which means six more chances to win." 14-year-old Bobbi-Lynn de Jong continues to be a phenomenon. She consistently finished fourth and is also in fourth place in the overall standings. Alisa Engelmann, on the other hand, was unable to compete due to injury.

Søe confidently in front, Prien only eighth

Thanks to his consistency, Johan Søe continues to lead the rankings here on Sylt. Although he did not manage another victory, he crossed the finish line in second place in both men's eliminations. The winners of the day are Nicolas Goyard and Daniele Benedetti, who scored his first direct hit here after his victory on Fuerte. Bruno Martine is in second place behind Søe. After a scary moment yesterday - Pierre Mortefon's harness line ripped his helmet off his head at full speed - Martine first had to replace his torn sail after a crash today, and in the second race he only managed eighth place. "I simply felt better yesterday," said the Italian.

Nico Prien was still more or less on target in the first round with a victory in the small final and ninth place, after which he had to settle for twelfth place. Thanks to Streicher, he is still in eighth place in the overall ranking. Fabian Wolf was able to overtake Prien once in eleventh place, while Lars Poggemann had some bad luck: "I didn't find the right setting for the conditions at first," he said. "It worked out in the last run, but I crashed there." Things didn't go at all smoothly for Michele Becker, who didn't make it past lap one.

For a long time today it was debated whether the race committee would perhaps start the freestyle. But hardly anyone was sad that they didn't have to go out into the North Sea in the freezing cold easterly wind, as the wind was clearly too gusty near the beach. Now it's supposed to start tomorrow frph at eight o'clock, the wind is forecast to shift to the north-east - and the sun will be back!