IFCA Slalom World Championships 2007 in Hyeres (France):
Day 1: Italian Day in the Bay of Almanarre!

 +++ Hyeres (France), October 3rd 2007.

The IFCA Slalom World Championships 2008 kicked off in Almanarre, Hyeres
(France) today. Over 70 competitors from all over the World representing
fourteen different countries made their registration for the highlight of
the IFCA Slalom season 2007. The officials of the class welcome that not
less then 16 women have made their registration which shows the positive
development of the IFCA Class in this segment. On the first day the wind
conditions were light. None the less the organization managed to run one
slalom for the women and the qualification heats for slalom elimination 1
for the men.

The first heat was won by Alberto Menegatti (ITA-456, F2, North Sails). The
Italian youngster managed to dominate the race with a huge lead. On the
second place followed Pawel Hlawaty (POL-11, Starboard, Severne) in front of
Pascal Toselli (FRA-916, JP, Neil Pryde). Marco Begalli (ITA-415, Exocet,
North Sails), the tripple IFCA Master Slalom World Champion and Antoine
Questel (FRA-99, Tabou, Gaastra) complete the top-5.

The second heat was also dominated by an Italian rider. This time it was the
turn of the „Italian Stallion“ Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1, Starboard, POINT-7) to
dominate over his opponents. The British Slalom expert Dan Ellis (GBR-52,
Fanatic, Naish Sails) followed in the second place. Nicolas Warembourg
(FRA-531, Tabou , Gaastra) got third with Pierre Mortefon (FRA-14, Tiga,
Neil Pryde) and Davide Beverino (ITA-3, JP, Neil Pryde) on his heals.

The womens fleet completed one slalom elimination. Fanny Aubet (FRA-808,
Fanatic, Neil Pryde) from France dominated the race in front of Olga
Maslivets (UKR-9, Tiga, Neil Pryde) from Ukraine and Marion Raisi (FRA-213,
Exocet, Gaastra) from France. Pepa Mavrodieva (BUL-121, Starboard, Gaastra)
from Bulgaria defended the fourth place against Verena Fauster (ITA-31, F2,
North Sails) from Italy.

For tomorrow the forecasts predict excellent slalom conditions. To achieve a
maximum output the start fort he competition was moved earlier. The Skippers
Meeting will be at 9:30 with the first possible start at 10:00.

The official website of the Euro-Cup series with more information is
www.euro-cup.org. The events are also covered on
www.formulawindsurfing.org and
www.internationalwindsurfing.com