We're used to new faces entering the Wingfoil World Cup stage by now. Nevertheless, nobody had this young US boy on their radar: Chris Macdonald. He comes from near San Francisco and has been wingfoiling since summer 2020. Since a rather mixed debut at the World Cup Fortaleza 2021, Macdonald has obviously gone one better. At the Ensis Engadinwing this weekend, he outdid the entire wingfoil elite, defeating freestyle world champion Titouan Galea in the semi-finals and downing Stefan Spiessberger from Vienna in the final, who also collected some big-name scalps along the way and was the second surprise of the day.
Local hero Balz Müller suffered an early exit by his standards. Against the 9-time windsurfing world champion in freestyle, the Venezuelan Gollito Estredo , he also had to retire earlier than expected. The final thus turned out to be a clash of newcomers - Stefan Spiessberger against Chris Macdonald. The entire repertoire of currently possible moves was on show: backflips, frontflips, 720s - the level currently only knows one direction: steeply upwards. In the end, Macdonald clearly beat Spiessberger (25.17 points) with 32.93 points. In the small final for third place, Titouan Galea was able to show once again that he also deserved to be in the final: with 33.06 points, he secured the highest score of the day against Gollito Estredo and thus secured his place on the podium.
Anyone who thought that was the end was wrong, as the thermals continued unperturbed after the freestyle finals. The regatta organisers therefore decided to hold further races in the disciplineSurf Race to start.
For Italy's Francesco Cappuzzo, this was the opportunity to redeem himself for his unexpectedly early exit in freestyle. He even left the Winner of the Defi Wing Bastien Escofet, behind him. After the sometimes marginal conditions of the previous days, the women also had another opportunity to battle it out in good and fair conditions. Flora Artzner from France secured her second event win of the year at Lake Silvaplana after her opening success at the Wingfoil World Cup in Leucate. Nia Suardiaz is also back on the podium and has obviously finally arrived at the top of the world, impressively underpinning her strong result from Leucate with two second places in freestyle and racing.
Here are the highlights of the Ensis Engadinwing in the video:
The results of the Ensis Engadinwing by DaKine 2022
Women's Surf Slalom
- Flora Artzner (FRA)
- Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
- Paula Novotna (CZE)
Men's Surf Slalom
- Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
- Titouan Galea (NCL)
- Camille Bouyer (FRA)
Women Freestyle
- Paula Novotna (CZE)
- Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
- Flora Artzner (FRA)
- Maaike Huvermann (NLD)
Men Freestyle
- Chris Macdonald (USA)
- Stephan Spiessberger (AUT)
- Titouan Galea (NCL)
- Gollito Estredo (VEN)
The next World Cup of the GWA Tour will take place on Lanzarote from 6 July. We will again be reporting for you on a daily basis.
