European Freestyle Pro Tour Lanzarote - Day 3
by EFPT 6 Jul 2018 19:46 PDT
4-7 July 2018
European Freestyle Pro Tour Lanzarote: Day 3 © Gwen Marche
Today it was time for revenge for Yentel Caers (JP), placed second in the first double elimination yesterday. Once again, the two freestyle giants Caers and Bosson met in the big final of the second single elimination to fight in a tight race for the victory. The two riders worked their way up through the heats, to then deliver a world-class final but first things first.
Loick Spicher (RRD/RRD) put on a great show today and seemed to eventually have found his rhythm in this competition. The Swiss sailor took down local boy Noah Vocker (North/Fanatic), who himself showed an extremely strong port-tack, as well as Adam Sims (Sailloft/Patrik) from the UK in the next round. Spicher got then defeated by current event-leader Adrien Bosson in the quarter final, who hasn't been coming off the water with a total score of less than 40 points throughout the whole day.
Steven Van Broeckhovens (Gunsails/JP) determination to improve his ranking was quite obvious. The former European Champion put together some high scoring heats, taking out Alex Mertens (Severne/Severne) from the US and Francesco Cappuzzo (RRD/RRD) from Italy, but got stopped by fellow countryman and good friend Yentel Caers. Van Broeckhoven proved in an extremely good fight against Caers, that he was back from his short injury-break. A double burner, culo spock, double air funnel into funnel, a push-loop, pasko and shifty and 42,69 points were marked down, yet weren't enough to pass Caers.
Nic Hibdige from the UK, who showed some serious potential during this competition, put on an amazing fight against top level freestyler Dieter Van der Eyken (Severne/Severne), but couldn't get past the Belgian, who landed one of the highest scoring moves of the day: a shifty shaka (8,7 points) against Antony Ruenes. However this hasn't been enough to stop Ruenes from charging through to the podium. The Frenchie landed some of the sickest tweaked pushloops, air-chachoos and shifties in his heats. In the battle against Yentel Caers in the semi-final he also shook the double forward out of his sleeves, but couldn't take down Caers who himself put together one of the highest scoring heats of this competition. Caers landed a double burner, double culo and air bob culo to count on starboard and a pushloop, double forward and shifty to count on port-tack.
So once again Caers would face Bosson in a final that has been as close at it gets. Highlights were certainly Caers perfect double forward and shifty shaka as well as Bossons huge air-kabikuchi and a superclean burner one handed into burner. In the end 0,05 points would favor the Belgian sailor this time, but the race for the overall first place is not over yet, as another exciting double elimination is coming up.
Top 3 of the second single elimination:
1st Yentel Caers (JP)
2nd Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic)
3rd Antony Ruenes
Double elimination
The second double elimination was launched straight away after the finish of the single. The wind had been stable throughout the whole day, with most of the riders being on their 4.4s and smaller freestyle boards and continued to blow.
Corto Dumond (Starboard/Severner), who became 9th in his first ever EFPT event in Fuerteventura, continued raising his level throughout the heats. He scored 31 points in the fight against Alex Mertens and Riccardo Marca (North/Fanatic) in the next round. The rookie from New Caledonia showed a glimpse of what the future might hold, landing burners, skopu 360ies, spock culos, shakas, konos, backloops and forwards in his heats.
Progressing in the double was also team Italy, with Francesco Cappuzzo (RRD/RRD), Riccardo Marca and Marco Vinante (JP) who were all sailing some really sick heats. The remaining 16 guys will be sent to the water tomorrow and we expect some more exciting freestyle battles at Costa Teguise.
For more information and results click here.