EFPT Lanzarote - Day 3

With a new day at the EFPT Lanzarote 2016 were coming new chances. The second double elimination was started just before 11.00 am with suitable wind for 4.8 – 5.2 sails.

In the first heat Rafael De Windt from Curacao was sailing against Bastiaan De Koningh (Starboard/Severne) from Bonaire. Even though De Windt was struggeling with an injury on his hand he still managed to take down the sailor from Bonaire. Aron Etmon (Starboard/Severne) from Curacao who is usually training and competing in slalom was pulling some nice moves like a really high shaka and a nice forward against the young sailor Deivis Paternina from Venezuela and could advance to the next round.

Young Johnny Yagen from Israel was on fire on day three of the EFPT Lanzarote. In his heat against Julian Wiemar (Starboard/Severne), who was placed 9th after the first double elimination, he went for up to three moves on one run. His starboard tack was looking really good with a loop, a burner, a kono and a perfect and stylish culo. Going out he went for shakas and airflakas. He met Marco Lufen (JP/Neilpryde) from Germany in the next round. The Israeli continued with his routine and added some nice burners and managed to pass Lufen.

Jeremy Plüss from Switzerland who didn’t really seem to find his form in the first eliminations was going for nice planing forwards, skopus, burner 360ies, konos and toads and took out Cheppi Gustowski (North/Fanatic) from Bonaire who seemed to have troubles landing his moves. The nice culo 360 and the super high kono going out unfortunately couldn’t change the game. Plüss advanced over the Bonairean and over Francesco Cappuzzo in the following round. Yagen stopped the run of the Swiss sailor landing a clean double spock, a ponch as well as other power moves.

After Jazzy Zwerus (JP/Neilpryde) pulled out of the event due to a knee injury, the only female competitor remained Maxime Van Gent (JP/Neilpryde) from Bonaire. The JP/Neilpryde girl opened with a nice funnell against Sebastijan Jancovic (Patrik Diethelm) from Slovenia. She then landed a perfect high shaka on the way out and a grubby whilst Jancovic was struggling to land his moves. After Maxime was winning the first six minutes oft he heat Jancovic manages to pull it around in his favor.

Noah Vocker (North/Fanatic) was doing extremely well in this freestyle competition even though his training is mainly focused on wave sailing. The local rider landed flakas, a super stylish flaka diablo, shakas, funnells and spocks and a loop on the way in and managed to succeed over Etmon. Rick Jendrusch (Severne) from Holland stopped Vocker in the next round after succeedind over De Windt. The Dutchie was sailing well even in the dropping wind and landed shakas, paskos, burners, nice konos as well as culos, bobs and clean double spocks. Jendrusch was then stopped by Antoine Albert (Goya/Goya) who seemed to be a force of his own at this event.

Maarten Van Ochten (JP/Neilpryde) was filling his sheet against Manu Rodriguez , Loick Spicher and Tonky Frans who eventually ended his run through in a very close heat. Van Ochten showed shakas, shove it spocks, forwards, air-chachoos, burners, burner 360ies, switch chachoos and airfunnel 360ies and proved that even after a break in competition sailing he was still a rider to watch out for.

EFPT rookie Giovanni Passani was working his way up in the double elimination taking victory over Marc Sogl, Adam Sims (Patrik Diethelm) and Sam Esteve (JP/Neilpryde). The Italian has been sailing really good in his heat against Sims being quite powered up whilst the Brit struggled with the slightly lighter wind. Since Sims port tack is really strong in stronger wind and waves, the light wind and less wavy conditions of today favored the Italian. He could fill his sheets with lots of moves like culos and konos both tacks. Passani then got defeated by Yentel Caers (JP/Neilpryde) from Belgium who sailed like he was from another planet today. The Italian freestyler was going through his moves with a lot of style and height, yet the Belgian top level sailor was going for an air-chachoo a perfect pasko and other double power moves on both tacks. The judging sheets on each side were full yet Caers could still walk through to the next round to become THE rider of the day!

After taking out Yagen, Passani and Tonky Frans, he had to face Jacopo Testa.
Caers open up with a perfect double burner 360 against the Italian who was ruling this competition so far. He also pulled a double culo and spock culo coming in as well as a big stalled forward and a pasko on port tack, whilst Testa was desperately looking for ramps. The less wavy conditions of today didn’t seem to favor the Italian rider as much as in the past days. Testa also spun through a spock culo yet couldn’t quite make the landing but stomped a perfect double culo later in the heat. On the buzza Caers landed a shifty and Testa a lazy susan. The Italian rider was missing a move on starboard tack in the end and had to let Caers pass.

Yentel then had to compete against JP-Australia team-mate Amado Vrieswijk who was showing a great performance in the last days. Even though Caers dropped some sail-ducks right in the beginning of the heat he then went for a perfect air chachoo, clean double burners and double culos as well as a nice pasko just to name a few big moves. Vrieswijk was landing a huge shifty and a nice double culo coming in. However his other maneuvres were not as clean and Caers passed on a 5:0 decision to face Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) for second and third place. The two Belgian riders who are training together most of the year didn’t give each other an easy time in this heat. Both were landing paskos, double burners and culo combinations whilst Van Brockhoven also stomped a perfect shifty and a gozzada coming in which led to good points considering diversity and technical difficulty on his score-sheet. Van Broeckhoven could take victory over his younger team-mate in a 4:1 decision.

Last heat coming up was Van Broeckhoven against Bosson, the winner oft he second single elimination yesterday. The Belgian sailor was well warmed up after his heat before and landed a shaka flaka, pasko, shove-it spock 540 and air-bob counting on the way out and a double culo, air-funnell 360, double burner and planing culo scoring on the way in. Bosson answered with a shaka 360, pasko, a huge culo and a flaka on port tack and a one handed burner funnell, one handed airfunnell-funnell, switch chachoo funnell and a culo on starboard tack. Van Broeckhoven won by a clear 5:0 decision over the Frenchie.

After Bosson took victory in the single elimination yesterday and Van Broeckhoven was winning the double today, the sailors had to be sent back out on the water for a superfinal. The conditions today clearly favored the multiple European Champion and former World Champion Steven Van Broeckhoven. Also in the superfinal his performance was on spot and he managed to beat Bosson a second time, which also made him the event winner! Van Broeckhoven stated: ‘I am super happy with my result! This was the event with the highest level I ever competed in! Everyone was pushing it hard!’

The top three after the second double elimination:
1st Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde)
2nd Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic)
3rd Yentel Caers (JP/Neilpryde)

We won’t start another single elimination as we won’t have enough time going all the way in a third double. If the conditions are suitable tomorrow we’ll aim for either a supercross supersession or in case of no wind for a tow-in show in the afternoon!