Tenerife El Médano PWA Tag 3

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Nach einigen Tagen des Wartens auf Wind bot der dritte Tag des Playa Surf CBbC Hotel Tenerife El Médano Windsurf Grand Slam endlich die Gelegenheit, die Wartezeit auf einen offiziellen Wettkampf zu beenden, als der Slalom X am frühen Abend bei 15 bis 18 Knoten Wind gestartet wurde. Da der Wind am unteren Ende des Spektrums lag, griffen die Rennfahrer zu ihrer größten registrierten Ausrüstung, was einen ganz anderen Test als auf Fuerteventura bedeutete. Da der Wind erst spät aufkam, blieb nur Zeit für eine Elimination, in der jedoch die üblichen Verdächtigen stark vertreten waren.

Elimination 1 Winners' Final

Slalom X

Men’s

Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde) made a seamless transition to his new sails as the Frenchman clinched the opening bullet of the event. Mortefon, who leads the world title race having won in Fuerteventura last month, produced a superb second gybe as he utilised the swell to gybe inside Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails / Z Fins) and take the lead, and once there, never looked like relinquishing it.

Iachino starts the event with a solid second place, but he’ll know he slightly missed an opportunity to claim the opening bullet. The Italian produced a great first gybe as he went slightly wider and powered out of the turn to move from about fifth into the lead, but then just mistimed gybing onto the same piece of swell that Mortefon ultimately used, which caused him to lose a bit of momentum and lose valuable ground that he couldn’t make up.

After the opening race the top three is identical to Fuerteventura with Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde), who held the lead down the opening reach, completely the current top three and it looks like the three heavyweights could be in for another epic tussle here.

In fact, the current top ten consists of exactly the same names that completed the top ten in Fuerte, but for now at least in a slightly different order. After the first race here, Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Fins) occupies fourth followed by Ingmar Daldorf (Tabou / GA Sails) in fifth, Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing) sixth, Nico Prien (JP / NeilPryde) seventh, Taty Frans (Point-7 / Z Fins) eighth, Jimmy Thieme (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails) and Bruno Martini (I-99 / S2Maui / Z Fins) completing the current top ten.

The forecast for Monday looks marginally windier than today with 16-20 knots predicted during the afternoon, while the skies are expected to be clearer, which may hopefully mean we get a bit more from the local thermal effect. The skippers’ meeting for both the Wave and Slalom X fleets will be held at 12pm (GMT+1) with the action commencing from 13:00 onwards.