PWA – Fuerteventura – 2016 – Day 5 – Highlights

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Published on July 27, 2016 by Windsurfing.TV

Day 5: Magic No.9 for Sarah-Quita Offringa while Amado Vrieswijk tastes victory for first time

The fifth day of the Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam — orangeades and sponsored by René Egli — saw light winds to conclude the final day of the freestyle. During the afternoon the breeze did increase and the women’s second double elimination was started, but unfortunately conditions deteriorated again soon afterwards meaning that there was no change to the results, which means Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) claims a deserved maiden win on the world tour, while Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) maintains her incredible unbeaten run to collect freestyle world title No.9.

Women’s

Sarah-Quita Offringa proved again over the last 5 days why she is the undisputed Queen of Freestyle as she produced another imperious display to extend her unbeaten run to 9 years. The 25 year old won every heat she sailed this week with a combination of the latest power moves and also sliding combos. Offringa had this to day after capturing a 9th freestyle world crown — 11 overall: “I feel like I had a good event and it was fun to sail in a different range of conditions — varying in wind strength and waves or waves, which gave everyone a chance to show their level. The thing that I personally enjoyed the most is that everyone was trying to push the level with Maaike and Oda going for the power moves, while Arrianne and Maxime are also pushing. Overall its nice to see the level go up.”

Maaike Huvermann (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) grew in confidence throughout the event and she ends 2016 as the vice-world champion, which is her best result so far. Huvermann was able to show her true talent after a disappointing single elimination and by the end of the week she was even beginning to give Offringa a run for her money.

Oda Johanne (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) sailed well once again and the Norwegian secured her place on the podium for the 3rd consecutive year. Johanne earned 2nd place in the opening single elimination, but slips back one place to 3rd with Huvermann gaining the upper-hand in their next two battles.

Meanwhile, Arrianne Aukes (Fanatic / NorthSails / Maui Ultra Fins) rises to 4th in the overall rankings this year, while Maxime van Gent (JP / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) and Olya Raskina (JP / NeilPryde) complete the top 6.

Alexa Escherich (JP / NeilPryde) made her debut this week and she walks away as the 2016 PWA Youth World Champion.

Men’s Freestyle

Amado Vrieswijk clinches a maiden event victory after fighting back through the double elimination and defeating Yentel Caers (JP / NeilPryde) twice to overturn the result. Vrieswijk now assumes control of the title race as he leap frogs Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC) into 1st place in the current overall world rankings. Vrieswijk added: “I’m super stoked to win my first world cup event. We had some amazing conditions. Thanks to everyone for being here and congratulations to Yentel and Gollito as well. I look forward to coming back next year.”

Yentel Caers has been threatening to produce a big performance recently and this week everything clicked into place as the Belgian stomped his mark on the world tour by winning the single elimination — guaranteeing himself his best ever result — 2nd here. Caers has now broken through and established himself as a world title contender for 2016 and years to come.

6-time freestyle world champion — Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC) — sits in 2nd place overall after the event. Gollito sailed well throughout the event, but uncharacteristically made a few errors in his heat against Vrieswijk in the double elimination. Gollito is usually clinical in the competition arena but crashed a couple of times, before running out of moves on port tack, which proved critical with his shifty in Heat 50 not counting. However, Gollito, still occupies 2nd place in the overall rankings and will enter the final event of the year in Sylt with an excellent shot at a 7th world title.

After an epic freestyle battle attention now turns towards the slalom, which starts tomorrow and runs for the next five days. From the looks of the forecast the fastest sailors in the world will be trying to hold onto their smallest equipment, while attempting to safely navigate themselves to the end of the course. The skippers’ meeting for tomorrow will be held at 12:30pm with a first possible start of 1pm (GMT+1).

Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to follow the racing live.

1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)

2nd Maaike Huvermann (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)

3rd Oda Johanne (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)

4th Arrianne Aukes (Fanatic / NorthSails / Maui Ultra Fins)

5th Maxime van Gent (JP / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)

Overall Ranking 2016 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam: Men’s Freestyle

1st Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne)

2nd Yentel Caers (JP / NeilPryde)

3rd Gollito Estredo (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC)

4th Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne)

5th Phil Soltysiak (Starboard / Sailworks)