At the end of last week, the wind forecast for the weekend became more concrete and we announced the official start of the spring edition of the Island Games Rügen 2024 in the freestyle discipline. As in previous years, the venue was Suhrendorf on the island of Ummanz on the island of Rügen at the UMMAII surf centre. Nine participants had registered in advance and two more spontaneously signed up on Saturday. A total of eleven men took part, unfortunately no women this year.
Eleven participants played tricks against each other at the Island Games Rügen
Thanks to the manageable field of participants, the competition with single and double elimination could be held on Saturday in a very relaxed manner, although the wind forecast would have allowed a competition over two days. The starting signal was given at 11.30 a.m. for the B field, in which Hermann Behrndt competed against Louis Rautmann and Lukas Gresch against Micha Belitz. Here, the two riders battled it out with chop hops, duck jibes, first air jibes and old-school tricks such as pirouette jibes and willy skippers. Michael Belitz prevailed in the end and only had to admit defeat when he dropped into the field of starters from the A classification and had to compete against Pascal Mikolajski, who had previously defeated Laurens Nagel. On the other half of the elimination, Thies Romig came out on top ahead of Georg Hünerjäger and Philipp Grzybowski. With Spock, Flaka and Spinloops, there was not much more to be gained here. Anyone who didn't land at least one or two switch moves had to admit defeat. The defending champions Markus Marsand and runner-up Mathias Genkel were waiting at the top of the competition tree. Both prevailed against Pascal Mikolajski and Thies Romig. Markus Marsand finally came out on top in the A final, while Pascal Mikolajski won the small final.
Exciting comebacks in the second half of the season, Lukas Gresch wins B classification
The tournament tree was rearranged and at 3.30 pm the double elimination continued, where a real race to catch up took place. Lukas Gresch, who had to be persuaded to take part the previous evening and was eliminated in the first heat of the single elimination, was able to win five heats in a row in the double. After pulverising the entire starting field in the B classification with very stylish duckjibes and a few airjibes, he was also able to outdo Georg Hünerjäger from the A classification, who was only able to record a single kono on the scoresheet due to the strong increase in wind. Only Laurens Nagel was able to stop Lukas Gresch, who secured first place in the B classification by a wide margin. And the race to catch up also continued in the A classification. Mathias Genkel, who seemed determined to take the title this time, first won the double by a narrow margin of 1.2 points and then won the super final by a whopping eight points over Markus Marsand.
Extensive party, weakening wind on Sunday
This was followed by a small award ceremony and party at the surf school. We actually wanted to use Sunday for a fun super session. However, thanks to the marginal wind and a long evening the night before, we enjoyed a free surf together and had some more fun on the water.
Results Island Games Rügen Suhrendorf 2024
Total:
1. Mathias Genkel
2. Markus Marsand
3. Pascal Mikolajski
4th Laurens Nagel
5th Thies Romig
6th Lukas Gresch
7th Georg Hünerjäger
8th Philipp Grzybowski
9th Michael Belitz
10 Louis Rautmann
11th Hermann Behrndt
B classification:
1. Lukas Gresch
2. Michael Belitz
3. Louis Rautmann
4th Hermann Behrndt
