Chiemsee European Tow In Championship - Impressive final day battle

by EFPT on 2 May 2013 After three action loaded qualification rounds in the last two days at the 2013 Chiemsee European Tow In Championship, where we saw experienced riders, and also some rookies, showing impressive moves and battling it out for the few places in the final, we finally saw the top ten battle it out in the final tonight.

Even though we had a bad weather warning again today and were quite concerned about the outcome of the event, we managed run everything just as scheduled in the end. The clock was striking 8.00pm when the first rider was on the line, getting towed into the floodlit scene with the screaming crowd awaiting.

The expectations were high and the riders obviously felt the pressure. The combination of the rather hard conditions (light winds and quite big chop) made even the best of the best struggle.

Waiting for high air moves and a lot of combinations the riders still played it safe in the first round, trying to go for single moves like burners or funnells instead of the usual combos.

Even though Björn Saragoza (Starboard) from Bonaire had troubles in both of his runs, and had to restart each of them, he managed to pull out a perfect air funnell one handed into funnell. The crowd went wild on the beach and everybody knew already that this was one of the best moves of the night. With 46.5 points he claimed eventually third place in the Chiemsee European Tow In Championship 2013.

A spectacular performance was shown by European tow in champion 2012 Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) from Belgium who went for a triple funnell but couldn't quite get the third rotation done. In the second round he showed us what it is all about and circled a perfect air-funnell into burner, all in the air. The audience cheered like crazy and Steven celebrated with a huge claim. With 49.5 points the judges showed some recognition for this high class move.

Being very professional Van Broeckhoven knew that he couldn't make his calculations without Gollito Estredo (North/Fanatic). Even though the Venezuelan didn't train tow-in too much (as he stated), he still pulled out some sick tricks. His first, a burner into funnell diabolo which he couldn't quite pull off scored 41.5 points while his second trick a burner into burner was honored with the highest score of the whole event: 50.5 points.

Gollito was eventually the winner of the event, however with Steven placing as the highest European rider he ended up taking the official Euorpean Tow-In Championships title for the second time over. His aim to define the crown was successful. We would like to congratulate him and the other sailors who made it to the podium.

Thanks everyone for following us over the last few days, we are looking forward to report from our next event, the Aqualeto Cup in European Freestyle Pro Tour