30-35 knots of wind ensured top conditions at the start of the World Cup on Fuerteventura. The entire women's single elimination could be completed on the first day, and the first round of the men's competition is over.
Sarah-Quita Offringa scored 28.5 points in her first heat, the highest score of the event so far, and showed all her rivals that she is in her usual form. However, she then made some uncharacteristic mistakes in the final, and with a few minutes to go, the Aruban still needed a port-tack move to fill her points account. In the end, Offringa was able to land a forward loop that saw her win the final against Oda Brødholt by just 0.4 points. With the win in the single elimination, the windsurfing queen from Aruba is on the verge of her incredible 15th freestyle world title, and if anyone wants to take it away from her, they will now have to beat her twice in the double elimination.
Lisa Kloster on course for a podium finish
For Oda Brødholt, however, second place is also a success, thanks to a solid performance in difficult conditions. The Norwegian achieved the same feat last season and will be determined to do it again this time. Brødholt beat Maaike Huvermann in the semi-final after landing a combination of shuvit spocks, burners and skopus.
Lisa Kloster has already proven with her fourth place in 2023 that she is capable of making it into the top group. The 24-year-old was able to do just that yesterday when she secured a fantastic third place in the single elimination. Kloster did not put in her best performance in the semi-final against Offringa, but everything came together in the B final against Huvermann and she won by 0.7 points. It was certainly not an ideal start to the event for Huvermann, but the 26-year-old from the Netherlands can take comfort from the fact that she didn't get off to a good start last year either and quickly improved to second place in the double elimination.
Gollito's comeback ends early, Niclas Nebelung in top form
In the first heat of the men's race, Sam Esteve confidently prevailed against Nigel Hart, while nine-time world champion Jose "Gollito" Estredo had a tough draw with Steven Van Broeckhoven. In the end, it was Van Broeckhoven who claimed victory. Gollito, who is competing with equipment from We One and GunSails, has a long road ahead of him through the double elimination.
In Heat 2, Niclas Nebelung was in impressive form as the 26-year-old German scored the second-highest score of the day, beating Robin Van Linden. Jacopo Testa needed a magical moment to prevail against Davy Scheffers. Shortly before the end of the heat, the Italian pulled off an insane spock-into-kabikuchi, which was arguably the best move of the day to advance to the round of 16.
Balz Müller did not show his best side in his first heat, but he still had enough in his bag of tricks to overtake Lucas Nebelung. On the other side of Heat 3, Amado Vrieswijk defeated Yarden Meir and also secured a place in the next round. Reigning U20 Freestyle World Champion Takumi Moriya made a confident start and ended the hopes of Bodhi Kempen, while on the other side Adrien Bosson made a confident start and handed Sebastian Gux a defeat on his debut.
Lennart Neubauer with the best heat of the day
In Heat 5, Lennart Neubauer took the highest score of the day with 39.5 points and showed everyone that he is a force to be reckoned with. Neubauer was the only rider to land a shifty, while he also performed excellent combos such as a Spock into Kono and a double burner. In the A-Panel, Takuma Sugi prevailed against Tigo Kort. In Heat 6, the French duo Nicolas Akgazciyan and Antony Ruenes, who finished third here last year, beat Nicolo Di Marco and Tim Gerdes to advance safely to the round of 16.
Heat 7b saw an extremely close Bonaire derby between Youp Schmit and Kiri Thode, who was celebrating his comeback. The gap was razor-thin for most of the heat, but Schmit was able to land a kabikuchi and a double culo to gain the upper hand to advance in the end. On the A-side of the panel, Antoine Albert was able to end the hopes of Manolis Chrysopoulous.
The start of the event couldn't have gone much worse for George Grisley, as in the first minute of his run against Nil Bacon, the Brit's rear foot strap snapped during a ponch turn, leaving him little to no hope of progressing... As a result, Bacon was alone for a large part of the run, so the Andorran naturally progressed. In the final heat of the day, reigning world champion Yentel Caers made no mistakes against Kango Iketeru. The 29-year-old showed a strong repertoire of manoeuvres, with a double air culo and an air kabikuchi as highlights.
A little less wind is forecast for today, Friday, but it should still be more than windy enough to ride more freestyle heats.
