GWA Wingfoil World Cup Fortaleza at Superfoil Brazil - Day 2
by Gemma Hamaini 19 Nov 2021 05:58 PST
16-21 November 2021
The GWA Wingfoil World Cup Fortaleza kicked off today with perfect conditions on the shores of Ceara's capital city, with 25 men and 10 women of 9 different nationalities registered to compete at this penultimate GWA event of the year.
Today we completed Men's Rounds 1-3 and Women's Round 1 in 18-22 knots of wind. It has been a busy period for the GWA athletes, who have traveled halfway across the World since completing our last event in Dakhla just last week. With one more event still to go in Tarifa this December, the pressure to perform and advance up the ladder is gradually increasing.
Men's Round 1
The action commenced at 10am local time, with Men's Round 1. The judging criteria was pure freestyle, with 15 trick attempts and the top 4 scores counting. The judges were looking for clean execution, speed, clean landings, and trick difficulty.
The top placed athletes from each heat of Round 1 advanced directly to Round 3, with riders 2 and 3 getting a second chance in Round 2. It was Francesco Cappuzzo from Italy, Julien Bouyer from France, Fernando Novaes from Brazil, Camille Bouyer from France, Chucho Nonnot from France, Christopher McDonald Junior from the USA, Fabian Muhmenthaler from Spain and Titouan Galea from New Caledonia. The riders were throwing out some nice tricks here on the shores of Fortaleza, including an insanely clean Back Flip from Titouan Galea which scored him 8.8 points, and Julien Bouyer's Backflip which scored him 7 points.
Men's Round 2
Round 2 saw three riders eliminated from the competition, as Wesley Brito from Cape Verde advanced over Marcio Tavares from Brazil, with Wesley performing a well-rounded heat scoring 19.23 points overall. He landed an impressive Backflip scoring 7.27 points, and a nice Frontside 3. Victor Fredianelle Junior from Brazil eliminated Robin Stewart from the USA in the final heat of Round 2.
Men's Round 3
Francesco Capuzzo seems to be in fine form here in Brazil, and his performance in Round 3 was no exception. He landed a well-executed Frontside 3 scoring 7.93 points amongst his array of tricks. He advanced over Louis Useldinger to the semi-finals.
Heat 2 was a struggle for Hendrick Lopes from Cabo Verde, who couldn't quite pull together the performance that he was looking for. Camille Bouyer from France however managed to nail four decent scores, and secured his spot in tomorrow's semi-finals.
Wesley Brito continued to build upon his strong riding from earlier in the day, and he advanced over young rider Chucho Nonnot who couldn't quite achieve the high scores that he needed.
"It was a really good day," said Wesley Brito. "I made it to the Semi-finals, and it's my first-time competing. Let's hope for some good conditions tomorrow! I am one of the heaviest riders in the competition so I really struggled a bit today in the moments when the wind was lighter. I need good wind and waves to go for something really crazy at this competition that you might have not seen before"
The final quarter-final of the day was a match-up between Titouan Galea from New Caledonia and Fabian Muhmenthaler from Spain. Fabian, unfortunately, crashed various trick attempts, whilst Titouan was fired up, opening the heat with yet another impressive Backflip scoring 8.27 points. From then on he landed every trick attempt except for one. He cleared his way to the semi-finals with a 26.84 overall score.
Women's Round 1
Women's Round 1 was completed today, were two Brazilian riders went face to face for Heat 1: Marcella Witt vs Liana Oliveira. Marcella managed to gain more consistent scores and advanced directly to Round 3.
"My first heat was against Liana, which I won, and tomorrow I will go up against Orane, and if I make it I will go straight to the semi-finals," said Marcella Witt. " I'm really happy to be here. I'm from Brazil, but it's actually the first time I have been here in Fortaleza. It's fun because I feel like a tourist."
For Heat 2, Paula Novotna from the Czech Republic put on an exceptional performance, showing how her dedication to training in this discipline has paid off. She finished the heat with an impressive overall score of 29.43 points and landed an exceptional Frontside 3 to finish it off. She advanced directly to Round 3, with Lidian Viana getting a second chance in Round 2.
Olivia Piana, who is back in action after missing our last event in Dakhla due to an injury, defeated Orane Ceris in Heat 3, showing that she is fully recovered and ready for action, and the final heat of the day saw Bowien van der Linden advance directly to Round 3 over Kylie Zarmate. Bowien rode a confident and secure heat, finishing with an overall score of 19.80 points, a fantastic follow-up to her excellent performance at our last event in Dakhla.
Tomorrow all of the action will continue, starting with the Men's Semi-Finals and the Women's Quarter Finals. The first possible start has been called for 11am local time.