World Cup Fuerte: Suardiaz and MacDonald win in freestyle

Before the FreeFly slalom continues in the coming days, the complete freestyle elimination for men and women was completed at the Wingfoil World Cup Fuerte. Even the final, after the World Cup Pozo he second Canary Islands tour stop on Fuerteventura turned into a teenage show - the winners were Nia Suardiaz and Chris MacDonald, two participants who are not even allowed to travel to the contest by car themselves due to their age.

But it was hard work until then, because even on Fuerteventura none of the established riders could be sure of winning against supposed nobodies. Francesco Cappuzzo, one of the top riders, experienced this first-hand when he lost out to the completely unknown 14-year-old Belgian Luca Vuillermet - partly because the Belgian had an "innovation trick" with 8.63 points on his scorecard. Vuillermet even performed a frontside 10 in the semi-final, but ultimately lost out to MacDonald and Bastien Escofet.

In the second semi-final, the action was also intense as French riders Alan Fedit, Malo Guénolé, 15-year-old Noé Cuyala and 15-year-old wingfoil prodigy Axel Gerard went head-to-head. There were all kinds of front and back flips on show, but above all combination moves, e.g. the backflip 360. Jerome Cloetens alone knew how to prevent the final from becoming a complete teen event. Cloetens, who has a lot of contest experience as a kitesurf pro, rode impressively solidly and scored high marks with his one-handed backflips and combination moves.

Meanwhile, Axel Gerard, the surprise runner-up in Pozo, couldn't quite find his rhythm. A frontside 10 worked in the final, but after that the air was somehow out of the young Frenchman. MacDonald also showed nerves at the beginning, messing up his signature jump, the frontside 10, twice and in the end just managed to get four good scores out of nine trick attempts on the scoresheet.

Suardiaz also unbeatable at the World Cup Fuerte

Bowien van der Linden and Orane Ceris stormed through their semi-final heats with back flips. The final then turned into a somewhat tough endeavour at times - there were plenty of crashes to be seen. Newcomer Viola Lippitsch from Austria wasn't quite able to keep up with the pace of the other three finalists, but she must have been happy with her first top four finish nonetheless. Ceris got off to a good start with a high-scoring backflip (8.63 points), but then visibly slowed down. Bowien van der Linden's surfing was not spectacular, but she steadily increased her overall score with tricks from the middle score shelf. However, even 17-year-old Nia Suardiaz was no match for her. A frontside 360, a trick combination and a clean back flip were enough to triumph at the World Cup Fuerte on this day.

GWA Wingfoil World Cup Fuerte - the results in surf freestyle

Ladies:

1. Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2. Bowien van der Linden (NED)
3. Orane Ceris (FRA)
4. Viola Lippitsch (AUT)

Men:

1. Christopher MacDonald (USA)
2. Jerome Cloetens (ESP)
3. Malo Guénolé (FRA)
4. Axel Gerard (FRA)

The remaining days of the World Cup Fuerte will now continue with free-fly slalom. You can follow the action live here again today:

All results and highlights will be available here on the website.