It was a ride on the razor's edge for the 17-year-old Frenchman Malo Guénolé - with a happy ending. At the end of a turbulent day of competition, Guénolé won his first World Championship title in freestyle. But first things first:
After the unexpected elimination of Gollito Estredo, who had been the world championship leader until then, in round 4, Guénolé suddenly had all the trump cards in his own hands. If he made it to the final, the title would be his for the taking. The first potential stumbling block on the way there was his compatriot Clement Roseyro. But Guénolé showed no nerves: with a clean frontside 720 and an impressive final wave score (8.33 points), he once again broke the 20-point barrier in this heat and deservedly made it through to the semi-finals. Titouan Galea, the current world champion at the time, was waiting for him there.
The semi-final between Galea and Guénolé was to be the highlight of the entire event. If Guénolé won, it would mean the world title for him. If Galea won, Gollito Estredo, condemned to watch on the beach, would be the new champion after all.
The 10-minute heat started at eye level, with both riders showing a firework display of fluid rides and massive jumps. It was only when Galea lost his board in the shorebreak shortly before the end of the heat that the pendulum swung in Guénolé's favour, who was able to pull away with a massive front flip and two long wave rides. In the end, the score was 21.90 : 20.33 points in Guénolé's favour, making him the new world champion in the surf freestyle discipline. Congratulations!
The final against his compatriot Camille Bouyer almost became a minor matter. The newly crowned world champion Guénolé now had the pleasure of surfing a heat completely free of pressure - and once again cracked the 20-point mark.
Once I had secured the title, the pressure was off. And without pressure, you have more fun and can give it your all again
Artzner wins the women's competition
Due to the exciting title decision, the action in the women's event was almost a little underwhelming, perhaps also because the World Championship decision had long since been made and the Czech Republic's Paula Novotna had already been crowned the new world champion since the last event. The Czech would still have liked to have reached the final, but was beaten in the semi-final by the current world champion Bowien van der Linden from the Netherlands. In the final, the two best female waveriders faced each other - Bowien van der Linden and Flora Artzner from France.
Van der Linden started the heat better and quickly pulled away with a frontside 360 and two solid waves. But as the heat progressed, Artzner also found her flow, riding wave after wave with great style and when Van der Linden tore up her wing in the shorebreak towards the end of the heat, Artzner pulled ahead.
The GWA Wingfoil World Tour 2022 thus ends with a maximum yield - results were achieved at all World Cup events. Here are the results of the GWA Wingfoil World Cup Brazil in the freestyle discipline:
Women:
- Flora Artzner (FRA)
- Bowien van der Linden (NLD)
- Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
Men:
- Malo Guénolé (FRA)
- Camille Bouyer (FRA)
- Maxime Chabloz (CH)
You can also find the final WM ranking HERE . We continue here with the surf race discipline - which should also be spectacular.
Stay tuned!
