The green flag for the final between Marine Hunter and Maria Behrens went up at 7.30 this morning on the beach at Westerland on Sylt. The strong north-westerly wind allowed an official wind wave to build up during the night, which the race committee wanted to utilise as early as possible for the final heats of the women's single elimination. In contrast to yesterday, the wind was blowing flat onshore and should slowly but surely decrease over the course of the day - extremely challenging conditions for the wave discipline. An elimination in the men's event was already in the stars at the start of the day due to the wind forecast. It was therefore decided to start with the women first in order to have a reliable result in the bag.
Women's final in the early hours of the morning
Onshore winds and low tide on Sylt mean that the waves break on the far-out sandbank and lose power until they pile up again just before the beach as a shorebreak and quickly collapse. So you have to decide whether to use the shore break for risky wave rides and risk not getting out in time, or whether to stay out on the "safe" sandbank. The potential for higher scores and more wow factor was definitely greater at the front of the shore break.
The German lady from Lübeck, Maria Behrens, who seems to read the North Sea waves particularly well, found the better waves in the difficult conditions in the grand final and once again picked out the right waves as she did yesterday. However, Marine Hunter from France was able to outperform Behrens with her solid jumping score, which included a nice back and front loop during the 14-minute heat, and secured victory in the single elimination.
In the small final that followed, reigning world champion Sarah-Quita Offringa beat Justina Sniady to take third place on the podium. The lady from Aruba came back to the beach after the heat completely out of breath: she had rarely struggled so much with the shorebreak, said the 32-year-old. The wind had already dropped and it was a feat of strength to cross the shore break after riding a wave in order to get out again and continue the heat. In the end, it was the high front loop in combination with a table top as the second jump score that made the difference for Sarah-Quita. Sniady was missing a second jump in her score and she tried for minutes to aim for a suitable ramp for a backloop, but couldn't find it and had to settle for fourth place in the end.
Long wait after round one in the men's competition
In marginal conditions, the race committee then managed to complete the first round of the men's single elimination until the wind died. Nevertheless, the waver remained on standby all day and hoped for better conditions. But unfortunately these were not to materialise and the eight heats of the first round were all that remained for today. The two Germans, Leon Jamaer and Julian Salmonn, did particularly well and both made it into the second round, but were unable to demonstrate their skills any further due to a lack of wind. It's a shame, but nobody has completely given up hope yet. With a bit of luck, tomorrow, on the last day of the schauinsland-reisen Windsurf World Cup on Sylt presented by got2be, it could be just enough for the wave discipline. We are curious.
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