Pegasus Airlines PWA World Cup 2010 Alacati, Turkey, Day Six.
The Meltemi returned today but failed to blow with full force playing havoc with the competitors and crew. Race director, Juan Antonio Aragon and his team made every effort to get a fifth and final elimination completed, and very nearly managed the first round, but there were just too many lulls over the course causing it to grind to a halt early in the evening. This left the results unchanged, and many sailors frustrated after waiting patiently on standby for much of the day.
With the results the same as day two, former world champion Micah Buzianis (JP, NeilPryde) can now breathe a sigh of relief after four nerve racking days in the lead. He’s claimed his first event victory of the season here in Alacati ahead of his team mate, and 2009 world champion, Antoine Albeau (JP, NeilPryde), and 2009 vice world champion, Finian Maynard (RRD, Gaastra).
In the women’s fleet, 2009 world champion, Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou, Loft, Mystic) also endured a frustrating four days at the top of the table, but finally took her first event crown of 2010 this evening ahead of former world champion, Karin Jaggi (Patrik, Severne), and transatlantic hopeful, Sarah Hebert (Naish, Naish).
Micah Buzianis: 'It feels amazing to be first here in Alacati because it’s been a while since I last won an event on the world tour. To win this one feels extremely special because I enjoyed the conditions, with the flat water and the lighter winds, which I think favored me much more than I expected. I didn’t use a huge amount of kit here during the first two days that we actually raced, just my 9.5 and 8.6, along with my 132L board. The last four days have been pretty nerve racking being on standby. The couple of days in the middle I felt less so because I was fairly confident that we weren’t going to race, but the last two were hell – it’s always quite terrifying holding on to first place at such a huge event with so many good sailors in the fleet.'
Valerie Arrighetti: 'I had a fairly low start to the world tour this year because I didn’t compete in Korea, and when I went to Costa Brava I didn’t think I’d carry on racing because I had some important personal issues. However, I found that I was still competitive, even without any training, and could still take on the top females such as Karin. This helped with my motivation and so I entered Alacati, where my goal was to win like every year. And, that’s what I did, so I’m really happy.'
Women 1st Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou, Loft, Mystic) 2nd Karin Jaggi (Patrik, Severne) 3rd Sarah Hebert (Naish, Naish) 4th Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, Gaastra) 5th Fanny Aubet (JP, NeilPryde)
Overall Rankings Men The 2009 world champion and current tour leader, Antoine Albeau has sailed consistently enough throughout the season now to secure the 2010 PWA slalom world title with an event to spare. Many times world champion, Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Starboard, Severne) remains in second overall despite his bad result here in Alacati, and event winner, Micah Buzianis has firmly held onto third.
Antoine Albeau on securing the 2010 world title: 'It feels amazing to have finally secured the world title before Sylt. Yesterday I felt pretty nervous because we could have still completed a few more races, and I could potentially have dropped out of the top 3. But, later in the day today I began to feel much more relaxed because I knew that we could only finish one race, and as the day went one it became more and more clear that we wouldn’t even do that. The racing this year has gone really well, although it feels like a bit of a short season, but there’s still one more event to go, and I will definitely be there giving it my best shot to win like always!'
Women With a second place finish in Alacati, former world champion Karin Jaggi retains her position in first place overall, and has secured a top 2 finish for the year. Due to official tiebreak rules – if Valerie Arrighetti were to win the next event - all Jaggi needs to do to win the 2010 world title is simply turn up in Almanarre and race. If for some reason she failed to do this then Arrighetti would still be in with a chance of claiming first on another tiebreak rule. The 2010 freestyle world champion, Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, Gaastra) has retained her position in second, and Alice Arutkin (Starboard, North) remains in third.
1st Karin Jaggi (Patrik, Severne) 2nd Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, Gaastra) 3rd Alice Arutkin (Starboard, North) 4th Sarah Hebert (Naish, Naish) 5th Cagla Kubat (Starboard, North)
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