After a few days of tough conditions, day 5 at the GWA Wingfoil World Cup Tauranga finally brought consistent conditions to complete the women's and men's freestyle elimination. As at the beginning of the week, the regatta management decided to move to the neighbouring Pilot Bay, where around 15 knots of wind were already blowing in the morning.
By the start of the second round at the latest, the standard had risen sharply and it quickly became clear that Team France could also be the benchmark this season. Camille Bouyer, Titouan Galea, Alan Fedit and Malo Guénolé outdid each other with high scores and all secured their place in the quarter-finals. The youngest competitor in the field, 16-year-old Chris Mac Donald from the USA, also made it there, beating Cash Berzolla on the beach with a score of 23.83 points in what was probably the best heat of the day.
The pendulum also swung in favour of the American Mac Donald in an extremely close heat against Bastien Escofet in the quarter-finals, with both showing the complete programme of front and back flips as well as frontside 720s despite the rather moderate wind.
The final - Mac Donald challenges the world champion
Two youngsters, Guénolé and Mac Donald, faced each other in the final. Mac Donald started the heat with a clean back flip (7.43 points). World champion Guénolé countered with a fantastic frontside 720, which earned him 8.63 points. This was followed by a wild and high-class exchange of blows, at the end of which Mac Donald had his nose in front by a tiny 0.8 points.
The highlights of the final heat can be found here:
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Suardiaz with first victory at the Wingfoil World Cup
The young German-Spanish athlete Nia Suardiaz had already sniffed victory many times last year, but had never finished higher than second place. This was to change at the Wingfoil World Cup in Tauranga. During the winter months, videos had repeatedly emerged showing that even the top riders had long been practising back and front flips. So it was all the more exciting to see whether these moves would be pulled out of the hat at the first event. The answer was: not yet! It was probably due to the relatively light wind.
But even so, the women's action was truly impressive. In the absence of world champion Paula Novotna, Suardiaz and Dutchwoman Bowien Van Der Linden secured their places in the final with solid 360s. Suardiaz had the best control of her nerves here, scoring three good scores in the end and thus fulfilling her dream of her first victory on the GWA Wingfoil World Tour. It is unlikely to be her last.
This means that over the next few days, the discipline FreeFly Slalom The focus will once again be on exciting races. After the freestyle finals, the regatta organisers switched to the slalom discipline and were able to complete a full elimination for the men and three eliminations for the women. Frenchman Bastien Escofet put in the best performance (read an interview with the winner of the Defi Wing HERE ), who outpaced his rivals Francesco Capuzzo and Alan Fedit. Suardiaz continued her winning streak in the women's race, winning two of the three heats to take the lead for the time being.
Tomorrow we will continue, we will report again on a daily basis!
