Awesome day yesterday at the FOSA PWA World Cup in Bonaire…
Upsets, NEW Moves and NEW sailors stepping up…
in fact and all NEW top 2 in the Men!!!
Results below
The upsets and surprises continued in the Men’s Single Elimination on Day 2 of the 2019 FORSA Bonaire PWA World Cup, while the top seeds in the Women’s draw prevailed on another action-packed day at Sorobon Beach. The wind may have taken a little while to fully fill in, but by the time the finals came around, there was a solid 25 knots blowing, which led to a spectacular show consisting of freestyle of the highest quality. After an enthralling day of competition there is a new name at the top of the men’s podium with local boy – Youp Schmit (I-99 / Avanti) – tasting victory for the first time, while Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) fended off a stern challenge from Maaike Huvermann (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)
Women’s
Single Elimination
Unlike in the Men’s draw, the top seeds in the Women’s Single Elimination successfully navigated their way into the finals. In the opening semifinal Oda Johanne (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) was on top for a long time against Maaike Huvermann (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins). That was until the 21-year-old pulled off a brilliant double spock to turn the tie on its head and booked her place in the Winners’ Final where she would face Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins), who overcame Arrianne Aukes (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins) in the semifinals with a proficient display.
Having booked her place in the Winners’ Final – Huvermann said that she would change up her strategy against Offringa and the current vice-world champion certainly threw everything she had at the reigning world champion. Huvermann sailed a brilliant final, opening with a regular kono before adding a culo, shuvit spock and landing double spocks on both tacks, but as she so often does, Offringa posted her highest heat of the contest in the final – 141.6 points – to claim a thoroughly deserved and well earned win. On her way to victory Offringa also landed a double spock, explosive culos and burners before ending the final with a spock-culo to take one step closer to making the perfect start to her title defence.
In the battle for 3rd and 4th – Oda Johanne faced Arrianne Aukes – and it was the Norwegian who came out on top after producing a superb display, which saw her land every move she attempted.
At the end of the Single Elimination, the top 4 is exactly the same as last year’s overall top 4.
Men’s
Single Elimination
The form book for the Men’s Single Elimination was seemingly thrown out of the window in the opening Freestyle event of the year with all 3 of last year’s top 3 being eliminated in the second round or earlier as vice-world champion – Adrien Bosson (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins) – and Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) – suffered surprise early exits just as Gollito Estredo (Fanatic / Duotone) experienced yesterday. Bosson fell at the hands of Giovanni Passani (Tabou / GA Sails / AL360), while fellow Bonairean Youp Schmit (I-99 / Avanti) defeated Vrieswijk and both Passani and Schmit would go on to be two of the sailors of the day.
With all 3 of the last year’s top 3 out of the equation, it looked as though the door would be held wide open for either Yentel Caers (I-99 / Point-7) – 4th overall in 2018 – or Steven Van Broeckhoven (Starboard / Gun Sails) – 5th overall in 2018 – to come through and pick up the pieces. Both men successfully navigated their way through their opening heats of the day to set up a tie against each other in the quarterfinals. The battle of Belgium which followed proved to be the tightest heat of the entire single elimination with just 0.8 of a point separating the two sailors at the end of the duel, but crucially for Caers, the decision went in his favour.
However, next up for Caers was – Julian Mas (JP / Gun Sails) – who claimed the scalp of Gollito Estredo on the opening day before producing another excellent performance to defeat Nic Hibdige (Tabou / GA Sails) followed by fellow countryman – Sam Esteve (JP / NeilPryde) – to prove it wasn’t just a one heat fluke and that he meant serious business. And unfortunately for Caers, Mas continued his incredible form into their semifinal with the 29-year-old barely putting a foot wrong, and seemingly landing whatever move he wanted, including another new combination with a super technical flaka-clock, which saw Mas set the highest scoring heat of the contest so far – 171.30 points – and book himself a place in a first ever winners’ final.
Waiting for Mas in the final would be local boy Youp Schmit after the Bonairean managed to defeat Julian Wiemar (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) in the quarters followed by an impressive victory against Giovanni Passani (Tabou / GA Sails), who had been in inspired form, in the semis.
Schmit came out with all guns blazing in the Winners’ Final and was clearly pumped to be competing at his home event. The 24-year-old has had his fair share of injuries and misfortune so far in his career, but today everything clicked into place as he continued his rich vein of form landing trademark super tweaked shuvit spocks, one-handed double ponches and even a clew-first ponch to claim a memorable and thoroughly deserved first victory in front of his home crowd.
In the Winners’ Final, Mas faltered a little for the first time during the contest and as a result he couldn’t land a telling blow to worry Schmit, but will still be delighted with his best performance ever on the world tour.
Yentel Caers secured the final place on the podium by winning the battle for third and 4th between himself and Giovanni Passani with the Belgian posting the highest scoring heat of the entire single elimination – 171.5 points.
Take nothing away from Passani though as the Italian sailed several outstanding heats, which earlier saw him two highly impressive victories against both Adrien Bosson and Taty Frans (Point-7). The 23-year-old showed sailed with style and swagger throughout while showing off clinical execution of his moves. Passani is now guaranteed his best result no matter what happens from here.
Double Elimination
After the completion of the Single Elimination, the contest rolled almost immediately into the double elimination, which featured 9-time world champion – Gollito Estredo – in the first round – not something you hear very often, if ever. The Venezuelan faced Tonky Frans and was clearly out prove a point as he went on to post the highest scoring heat of the contest so far in Heat 18a – 172.6 points. Gollito then successfully continued his comeback by defeating Jacopo Testa (RRD / RRD Sails / AL360) to set up a mouthwatering third round tie against Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) after the Bonairean dispatched of Mattia Fabrizi (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) in Heat 22b by posting the highest score so far – 181.9 points.
At the start of the week, no-one would have ever predicted that Gollito and Vrieswijk would meet each other in just the third round of the Double Elimination, but they are now set for a colossal tie with whoever loses potentially already realistically out of the title race.
The remainder of the first round was also completed and Riccardo Marca (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins), Jamie Howard (F2 / F2), Antony Ruenes (Tabou / GA Sails), Max Rowe (Simmer / Simmer Sails), Davy Scheffers (Tabou / GA Sails) and Antoine Albert (Goya Windsurfing) are all successfully into the second round.
Unfortunately, during the opening round it looked as though defending event champion – Kiri Thode (Severne / Severne Sails) – suffered a serious injury against Antony Ruenes and everyone from the PWA would like to wish Kiri all the best with his recovery.
The wind is predicted to be lighter tomorrow with WindGuru forecasting 16-19 knots. The sailors will meet again at 9am tomorrow morning for the skippers’ meeting with the action commencing from 9:30am
(GMT-4) onwards.
To stay up to date with all the latest developments from Bonaire — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images, and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Result FORSA Bonaire PWA World Cup – Women’s Freestyle Single Elimination
1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU – Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Maaike Huvermann (NED – Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Oda Johanne (NOR – Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)
4th Arrianne Aukes (NED – Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins)
5th Johanna Rümenapp (GER – I-99 / Gun Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
Result FORSA Bonaire PWA World Cup – Men’s Freestyle Single Elimination
1st Youp Schmit (NB – I-99 / Avanti)
2nd Julian Mas (FRA – I-99 / Gun Sails)
3rd Yentel Caers (BEL I-99 / Point-7
4th Giovanni Passani (ITA – Tabou / GA Sails)
5th Julian Wiemar (GER – Starboard / Severne Sails)
5th Sam Esteve (FRA – JP / NeilPryde)
5th Steven Van Broeckhoven (BEL – Starboard / Gun Sails)
5th Taty Frans (NB – Point-7)
