With a weather forecast that predicts the chance of wind on the weekend the EFPT race directory decided to run two of the qualification rounds for the final already today.
Fleet number three provided some surprises and didn’t disappoint at the same time. Local rider Max Matissek (North/Fanatic), who is a big star here on site, was carried through both of his runs by the cheering crowd at the beach. He landed a solid double funnel in his first round which scored him 41 points and returned to the beach with dry hair. In his second run he tried to top it up by rotating through a triple funnel onto the glassy watersurface. He couldn’t quite get the third rotation, yet the audience went wild nonetheless.
A very decent performance was shown by Matisseks Chiemsee team-mate Marco Lufen (JP/Neilpryde). The young German sailor couldn’t properly impress in the tow-in discipline so far, however he managed to land both of his attempts today and left the water with a big smile after he qualified for the final with a funell into air-funell and 40.5 points.
Tonky Frans who is one of the contenders for the title and who is one of the crowds favorites surprisingly crashed his first run but shot himself into first place in the second round with an air funnel into burner which got honored by the judges with the high-score of 48 points.
Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic) from France, who is known to be an absolute weapon in this discipline, couldn’t quite demonstrate his skills this time. We have to give him the most spectacular crash though as he hit the water whilst getting towed at the highest speed. Luckily nothing happened but it looked like he was put off a bit afterwards.
Also Yentel Caers (JP/Neilpryde), team-collegue of Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) who decided against participating due to an injury, expected more after his two solid runs. He just missed the podium but there will still be the chance to get the lucky loser who will complete the fleet of ten riders for the final.
The result of fleet 3 is as follows:
Just as the the briefing for fleet number one was finished and the riders started their test-runs the wind from north-west kicked in and turned the calm glassy tow-in playground into the perfect arena for some explosive freestyle action.
Due to the current weather forecast we will complete the tow-in competition tomorrow with the following schedule:
Fleet 1: 12.00 am warm-up, 01.00 pm competition
Fleet 2: 03.00pm warm-up, 04.00 pm competition
Final: 06.00pm warm-up, 07.00 pm competition