IFCA SLALOM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, HYERES, FRANCE – DAY 4
Dan Ellis wins and takes the lead in the regatta

+++ Hyeres (France), October 6th 2007. Incredible! Although the forecasts
were not positive at all, for the IFCA Slalom World Championships we have
been able to get spectacular windsurfing competition every day so far. Today
we saw another Slalom for the mens fleet and even two for the women. Dan
Ellis (GBR-52, Fanatic, Naish Sails) was the men of the day and won the
final while Valerie Ghibaudo (FRA-444, Tabou, Loft Sails)showed weaknesses
for the first time and had to accept a second place in one slalom.

In the mens fleet the tension was almost touchable before the final of
elimination 5. With Florent Renard (FRA-5, JP, Neil Pryde), Hubert Mokrzyki
(POL-25, Tabou, Gaastra) and Alberto Menegatti (ITA-456, F2, North Sails)
three of the favorites eliminated themselves already by starting over early.
This opened the door for Bora Kozanoglu (TUR-11, Starboard, Neil Pryde), Dan
Ellis, Michal Polanowski (POL-16, Starboard, Neil Pryde) and Andrea Cucchi
(ITA-1, Starboard, POINT-7). All of them had realistic chances for a place
on the podium or even the World Championship title itself.

Dan Ellis had a killer start and led the fleet to the first mark. With
excellent speed and save jibes he ensured his victory in the fifth
elimination. On the second place followed Andrea Cuchi. The Italian Slalom
Champion was able to score his best result in the competition so far. Bora
Kozanoglu, the Turkish Slalom Champion scored an excellent third place in
front of Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4, Starboard, Neil Pryde) from Denmark and Tom
Nagy (FRA-30, Naish, Naish Sails) from France.

In the womens fleet two races were run. Valerie Ghibaudo, the dominating
leader of the World Championships won one of them but in the final race she
was beaten for the first time. None the less she sits comfortable in the
first place with 6,3 points. Verena Fauster (ITA-31, F2, Gaastra) proudly
took the victory and confirmed her second place in the regatta with a total
of 25,7 points. Marion Raisi (FRA-213, Exocet, Gaastra) defends the third
place with 39,2 points. The local youngster Fanny Aubet (FRAU-808, Fanatic,
Neil Pryde) scored a third place in the last race today and is currently
fourth. Agnieszka Pietrasik (POL-19, Starboard, Naish Sails) presented a
strong performance today with a second and a fourth place and completes the
top-5 in the results.

Before the final day the situation couldn¹t be more thrilling: Two riders
are fighting with even points for the World Championship title. Due to his
bullet in todays slalom Dan Ellis moved up and has now 6,7 points just as
the Turkish slalom champion Bora Kozanoglu. To solve the tie the discards
are taken into account and there the British slalom expert wins against
Kozanoglu with a seventh place against a nineth. Yesterdays leader Hubert
Mokrzyk could only follow the final from the beach as he was disqualified
for beeing over early. Nonetheless he defends the third place with a total
of 11,0 points. The Italian Slalom Champion Andrea Cucchi is only one point
behind with 12,0 points. Another Italian completes the top-5: Alberto
Menegatti accumulates 15,7 points.

Everything is open before the final day! We are halfway through the 6th
slalom elimination and have the qualification rounds completed. We only need
to run the two semi finals to make this slalom valid and another two heats
to complete it. This is easily possible! The skippers Meeting is set for
10:00 and the first possible start at 11:00. As the IFCA Slalom World
Championships in Hyeres will end tomorrow and the prize giving is planned
for 16:30 we don¹t expect any competition to be run after 15:00.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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. Besides the reports and the results
you will also find a live ticker on www.euro-cup.org