IFCA Slalom World Championship Azores overall

by International Windsurfing Association on 15 May 2014 The IFCA Slalom World Championship 2014 Opening Ceremony took place on the event site with some nice BBQ and music. A welcome by from the Mayor's representative was followed by words from the events Principal Race Officer, Bruno de Wannemaeker.

57 entries from 18 nations representing three continents included the top five from the 2013 Worlds in Germany: World Champion Gunnar Asmussen (GER-88) from Flensburg, Vincent Langer (GER-122) from Kiel, Dutchman Jordy Vonk, Sebastian Kornum from Denmark and Maciej Rutkowski from Poland, head of the IFCA World Slalom Ranking List. Also Italian Andrea Rosati, 2013 IFCA Masters Slalom World Champion, and 2012 Slalom World Champion, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel from Argentina.

After the late registrations were done the first official skippers meeting was held at 12:00. Sadly the wind was very light and all competitors were on standby until further notice.

Day two started out as before with some clouds and a light breeze. After the 9am skippers meeting the AP flag went up, competitors were on standby as very tricky unstable winds blew from 5 knots to 20 knots out on the course area.

Some competitors took time to prepare their gear and most of them went out for a test run on their biggest sails. Several times the wind seemed to be kicking in but, it just would not cover the whole course area and even if it did, it did not last too long either.

The event's Principal Race Officer, Bruno de Wannemaeker, and the event organizer, Carlos Borges, took a rib drive around the point of the coastline and discovered that the wind and the sun were smiling and having fun around the corner at Porto Martines. The conditions looked more stable than the scheduled course area thus was a proposal made by the organizer to move the event area in the morning to make the best out of the predicted forecast. Big Trucks would be ready early in the morning to transport the competitors and their gear to another location nearby. A new course would be set at the new location and hopefully the first races of this event would kick off.

Race Officials went out by boat towards Porto Martins before the 8am scheduled meeting for the riders on another early Azorean morning on the third event day. The crew found Porto Martins wind measurements on the outside 9 to 14 knots, Porto Martins wind measurements on the inside 5 to 11 knots.

The decision was announced at 8am: too much of a risk to transport all 57 competitors and more than 100 board bags to the proposed location so, a few sails had to be re-rigged and competitors were put on standby mode throughout the day until conditions became suitable for an official race.

Some made use of the waiting period to test their equipment in the light and gusty conditions on the course area, while the water crew constantly measured the wind conditions on several locations. The predicted winds failed to show up and racing was eventually called off for the day. It seemed pointless looking at the next day’s forecast .... 'let's just wait and see'.

Day Four in the beautiful Azores and we finally got wind and some racing!

After the previous 'will it, won't it' day when the winds were just not that good enough for official competition, the ever hopeful race crew made a few changes to the course in anticipation of a good day and the ladies were scheduled to start first.

It was a long morning watching the gusts coming through but the sun was shining on the competition and eventually the announcement from the Race Officer everyone was waiting for: 'winds are 15 to 30 knots and the conditions are beautiful for some racing!'

The action was finally on - fast and furious heats were fired off. The wind gods were keeping everyone on their toes, competitors were on a range of 7.0 to 8.5 sails. Just occasionally the wind dropped - heat 11 was abandoned due to lack of wind at the start - but these tricky shifty winds made for exciting racing for competitors and spectators alike.

Ben van der Steen from the Netherlands came out on top at the end of the day with Italian Matteo Iachino in second. It was a very close call for third and it appeared that Israeli Dagan Arnon was there but subsequent video review put German Vincent Langer in third place. Delphine Cousin headed the ladies leaderboard.

Everyone was praying for wind for the final championship day. The skippers meeting was held at 09.00 as usual with the last possible start scheduled for 17:00.

'The wind really sucks' summed up the whole day, competitors being on standby until the next announcement at 13.00. There was no change so competitors decided it was de-rigging and packing time and looked forward to the Awards Ceremony casual style in the evening.

Final Result Men

RANK	SAIL	NAME	DIVISION	BOARD	SAIL	EL 1	EL 2	EL 3	EL 4	TOT
1	NED-57	Benny van der Steen	senior	Tabou	GA Sails	0,7				0,7
2	ITA-140	Matteo Iachino	senior	Fanatic	North Sails	2				2
3	GER-1	Vincent Langer	senior	RRD	Point 7	3				3
4	ISR-1	Dagan Arnon	master	RRD	NeilPryde	4				4
5	FRA-916	Pascal Toselli	senior	Starboard	Point 7	5				5
6	GER-88	Gunnar Asmussen	master	Patrik	North sails	6				6
7	AUS-0	Stephen Allen	senior	Starboard	Severne	7				7
8	ARG-3	Gonzalo Costa Hoevel	master	Starboard	Loft Sails	8				8
9	FRA-99	Antoine Questel	senior	Starboard	Loft Sails	9				9
10	FRA-14	Pierre Mortefon	senior	Fanatic	North sails	10				10
11	ESP-12	Ludo Jossin	senior	Patrik	Loft Sails	11				11
12	BRA-767	Isaac Mateus	senior	JP	NeilPryde	12				12
13	FRA-531	Nicolas Warembourg	senior	Patrik	Loft Sails	13				13
14	ITA-7777	Malte Reuscher	senior	RRD	Chalanger	14				14
15	NED-52	Casper Bouman	senior	Angulo	NeilPryde	15				15
16	FRA-71	Cyril Moussilmani	senior	Starboard	Loft Sails	16				16
17	ITA-1111	Andrea Ferin	senior	RRD	Chalanger	17				17
18	LAT-23	Janis Preiss	master	Tabou	GA Sails	18				18
19	DEN-26	Christian Justesen	senior	RRD	Point 7	19				19
20	DEN-24	Sebastian Kornum	senior	JP	NeilPryde	20				20
21	ESP-71	Fernando Martinez d C	master	Patrik	Severne	21				21
22	POL-23	Maciek Rutkowski	senior	Patrik	Point 7	22				22
23	NED-69	Jordy Vonk	senior	F2	Point 7	23				23
24	ITA-0	Andrea Rosati	master	RRD	NeilPryde	24				24
25	MRI-1	Julien Maurel	senior	Patrik	Loft Sails	25				25
26	FRA-86	Damien Le Guen	senior	Exocet	XO Sails	26				26
27	POR-13	Martim Monteiro	senior	Angulo	Gun Sails	27				27
28	FRA-511	Sebastien Bonhomme A	senior	F2	Avanti	28				28
29	AUT-226	Chris Pressler	master	Starboard	Severne	29				29
30	TUR-74	Ali Sinan Gerzile	master	RRD	Maui Sails	30				30
31	FRA-823	Valentin Brault	senior	Exocet	XO Sails	31				31
32	POL-16	Michal Polanowski	senior	Starboard	Severne	32				32
33	NB-20	Amado Vrieswijk	youth	Starboard	Severne	33				33
34	FRA-873	Jocelyn De Souza	senior	Patrik	Loft Sails	34				34
35	GRE-28	Skarlatos Nicols	master	JP	NeilPryde	35				35
36	POL-48	Mrocaynski Wojtek	senior	Starboard	Point 7	36				36
37	CUR-2	Aron Etmon	youth	Starboard	Severne	37				37
38	POR-3	Jose Pedro Monteiro	grandmaster	Angulo	Point 7	38				38
39	POR-24	Pedro Soares	master	Starboard	Gaastra	39				39
40	ITA-160	Bruno Martini	senior	RRD	RRD Sails	40				40
41	POR-711	Mario Medeiros Sabao	master	JP	Severne	41				41
42	POR-38	Moniz Ticiano	master	Fanatic	NeilPryde	42				42
43	POR-120	Costa Paulo	master	Mistral	NeilPryde	43				43
44	GRE-1	Philip Adamidis	grandmaster	Starboard	Maui Sails	44				44
45	POR-70	Leal Rui	senior	Starboard	Severne	45				45
46	GRE-13	Kostas Stamboulis	master	Starboard	Chalanger	46				46
47	POR-21	António Galvão	master	Starboard	Severne	47				47
48	POR-41	Pedro Borges	grandmaster	Starboard	Gaastra	48				48
49	POR-72	Moreira Saul	master	Fanatic	Severne	49				49
50	GRE-192	Alexandros Poupalos	master	Starboard	Chalanger	52				52
51	ITA-415	Marco Begalli	grandmaster	Starboard	Severne	52				52
52	POR-77	Mario Lima	master	Starboard	Avanti	52				52

Final Results Women

 

RANK	SAIL	NAME	DIVISION	BOARD	SAIL	EL 1	EL 2	EL 3	EL 4	EL 5	EL 6	TOT	DISC 1	NETTO
1	FRA-775	Delphine Cousin	senior	Starboard	Loft Sails	4	1	1				6	4	2
2	TUR-33	Lena Aylin Erdil	senior	Patrik	Loft Sails	1	2	2				5	2	3
3	ESP-2	Maria Andres	senior	Patrik	Gun Sails	2	3	3				8	3	5
4	GRE-28	Gelly Skarlatou	master	JP	NeilPryde	3	4	4				11	4	7
5	POR-36	Moniz Helia	master	Starboard	NeilPryde	5	5	5				15	5	10

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