2020 Zoo Station Croatia PWA Slalom World Tour

2020 Zoo Station Croatia PWA Slalom World Tour © Wozniak / www.PWAWorldTour.com

Victories for Jenna Gibson (GBR) & Maciek Rutkowski (POL)

The 2020 Zoo Station Croatia PWA Slalom World Tour event proved a massive success with Bol Island producing 5 days racing out of a possible 6. Over the course of the last 6 days 12 Men's Eliminations, 13 Women's Slalom Eliminations & 6 Women's Foil Eliminations were able to be completed in solid conditions, while just returning to the racecourse represents a major step in the right direction after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bol is a small beautiful seaside town on the island Brac in Dalmatia, the central part of the Croatian coast. It is most known, besides being one of the few places in Croatia with constant thermal winds, by the beautiful beach the Golden Horn, shaped like an arrow whose top changes directions in line with the direction of the wind.

During the entire summer, when the weather is sunny and stable, Bol is blessed by a thermal wind called Maestral, blowing every day around 15 to 20 knots side-shore between approximately 1pm and 6pm.

Women's

Jenna Gibson (Fanatic / Duotone) was the clear standout sailor of the week in the Women's fleet as the 22-year-old reeled off 13 consecutive bullets to claim a landslide victory in the Slalom, whilst she also produced an excellent comeback on the foil to claim the Foil event title. Gibson had trailed Alice Read (Patrik / Severne) by 0.7 of a point, but a victory in the last elimination of the week saw her pip Read to the title - with Read only managing to finish 3rd and eventually losing out by the same margin.

The Women's Slalom podium is completed by Palma Cargo and Alice Read, while the Women's Foil podium is completed by Read and Adéla Rašková.

Men's

With no wind on the final day, that means that Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) walks away from the opening event of the year with a first victory on the world tour. Rutkowski will be delighted to have carried his excellent form from last year into the new season. The Pole finishes the event with an impressive record of 7 victories from 12, whilst only finishing outside the top 3 to cap a dominant performance.

The homegrown talent of - Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde) - couldn't quite find a way to overpower Rutkowski, so the Croat doesn't walk away from his home event with the top spot, but he still claimed a solid second place, just ahead of Italy's Bruno Martini (Future Fly / Challenger Sails / Starboard Foil), who completes the podium. Marotti and Martini were both able to win several eliminations each (3 for Marotti & 2 for Martini), but a few costly errors ultimately cost them a shot at the title.

The top 5 is completed by last year's PWA Youth Slalom World Champion - Basile Jacquin (I-99 / Point-7) - and Luka Mratovic (Fanatic / Duotone / Starboard Foil).

That concludes the first event of the 2020 PWA World Tour and we hope you enjoyed the return to action - congratulations to all the winners.

Overall Results: (top three)

Men Slalom
1. Maciek Rutkowski (Poland - POL-23) 8.9pts
2. Enrico Marotti (Croatia - CRO-401) 17.1pts
3. Bruno Martini (Italy - ITA-160) 20.4pts

Women Slalom
1. Jenna Gibson (Great Britain - GBR-96) 7.0pts
2. Palma Cargo (Croatia - CRO-751) 24.0pts
3. Alice Read (Great Britain - GBR-248) 34.0pts

Women FOIL
1. Jenna Gibson (Great Britain - GBR-96) 6.8pts
2. Alice Read (Great Britain - GBR-248) 7.4pts
3. Adela Raskova (Czech Republic - CZE-77) 14.0pts

Full results here.

Full daily stories here.