World Cup Sylt: Yentel Caers is freestyle world champion, Lennart Neubauer wins the event

What a comeback from Yentel Caers! He had come to Sylt as the world championship leader, but in the single elimination he had to call it a day after the first heat. His opponent yesterday was Lennart Neubauer, who then marched through to victory with aplomb. Today the double elimination continued, again with good sideshore wind, but a little more wave than yesterday.

Yentel had a mission and knew what he had to do. In his very first heat against Dieter van der Eyken, he scored the highest points of the day to date, only to go one better in the next round against Sam Esteve. Takuma Sugi was then no longer a major obstacle before the fifth-place heat against Antoine Albert. For his part, the man from New Caledonia had made remarkable progress through the double elimination, knocking Amado Vrieswijk and Balz Müller out of the way.

Yentel Caers above 40 points for most of the day

But no chance against Yentel on fire, again more than 40 points for the Belgian. Jacopo Testa also had to vacate his fourth place after the single elimination and was allowed to go straight back on land. The heat for third place then became the World Championship final: Adrien Bosson, who had the best chance of defending his title after the single, had to win to stop Yentel Caers. He, in turn, was able to clinch the title with a win.

Could Caers maintain his momentum with five heats already under his belt? The Belgian routinely reeled off his programme, but Adrien Bosson was just ahead at the halfway point. But with a gigantic Shifty, an Air Bob and a Shifty Shaka, Caers once again broke through the 40-point barrier and Bosson was no longer able to counter. This meant the second world title for Yentel Caers after a spectacular comeback!

One of the first to congratulate him was his Brouwersdam mate Steven van Broeckhoven, who then had to compete against the new world champion next. Anyone who thought Caers had run out of steam was amazed to see that he had already scored more than 40 points halfway through the heat.

Lennart Neubauer ice-cold in the final

Lennart Neubauer, who had knocked him out so early yesterday, was waiting for him again in the final. Will he have enough strength again or will the flow be the decisive factor against a fresh and untested opponent?

Lennart Neubauer showed perfect heat planning: in the first few minutes, he placed a double culo and shifty directly in front of Yentel Caers' nose. He countered confidently, but in the second half of the heat the new world champion was unable to stop all of his moves cleanly. However, Neubauer also had to water-start a few times, so that the gap was just 0.3 points at one point. With a clean air funnel burner, Lennart Neubauer made everything clear shortly before the end: he won the final and thus his first event on the PWA Tour!

"After yesterday's victory, I went into the final today feeling confident and positive," said Lennart in an interview afterwards. "I did everything the same as yesterday. You can't even think about losing, because then it won't work."

Nicolas Goyard wins the fourth slalom elimination

After the thrilling freestyle final, there was a slalom elimination. Taty Frans started on the Finn but, as expected, had no chance against the foils. The course was close to the beach, making it easy for spectators to watch, and every stroke took her over the outer sandbank - a hairy affair with larger sets. This proved to be Michele Becker's undoing in the semi-final, who suffered a major crash.

The course was then adjusted for the remaining heats and the wind also died down a little. Maciek Rutkowski made an early start in the semi-final and then won the small final with a lot of anger in his stomach. Nevertheless, the world championship leader had certainly hoped for more, as Saturday was not ideal. This also applies to Sebastian Kördel, who sailed safely through to the final, but then went down again after a jibe. Nico Prien, on the other hand, can be satisfied with his result, having ridden up to fifth place despite his shin injury. Neither of them were able to do anything against Nicolas Goyard's commanding victory.

Thanks to the stripper that can be drawn after this fourth elimination, Mateus Isaac now leads the event ranking at the schauinsland-reisen Windsurf World Cup Sylt presented by got2be. He came third today, Matteo finished seventh and is now in second place ahead of Johan Soe.

Results Freestyle World Cup Sylt 2023

• 1. Lennart Neubauer
• 2. yentel Caers
• 3 Steven van Broeckhoven
• 4th Adrien Bosson
• 5 Jacopo Testa
• 6 Antoine Albert
• 7 Balz Müller
• 7th Takuma Sugi
• 9th Takumi Moriya
• 9th Sam Esteve
• 9 Youp Schmit
• 9th Amado Vrieswijk
• 17 Niclas Nebelung

Also interesting:

• Lennart Neubauer on his injury and the road back
• Interview with Michele Becker: "Without competitions, I would no longer windsurf"
• The best crashes at the World Cup Sylt
• Everything about the Windsurf World Cup Sylt 2023