The 2007 Colgate World Cup Sylt – Final Day

Sylt goes out with a bang. Champagne corks pop and champions are crowned after a day rammed full of insane freestyle, wild surf slalom and an all-out wave sailing expression session.

Gollito on fire

Shoreline crowds

Nayra takes the win

A world title for Brawzinho

Men’s Freestyle Double Elimination

The action-packed day kicked off with the completion of the men’s freestyle double elimination.

On Friday 18-yr old Brazilian star Marcilio Browne (Mistral / Gaastra) had already finished high enough in the rankings to seal the 2007 title, but the event crown was still to be decided.

Browne faced Bonaire trick specialist Tonky Frans (F2 / Gaastra) for a shot at the final against single elimination winner Jose Estredo (Fanatic / North).

In difficult choppy conditions Frans’ score sheets marked him down for repetition but his technical skill and style impressed the judges enough for him to defeat the new world champ.

Frans came out in the final super fired-up but the conditions limited both him and Estredo’s ability to pull off their top drawer tricks.

Eventually a stylish, one-handed regular stance chacho, right under the crowd’s noses gave the Caribbean stylist the win and so, under the double elimination format, a re-sail to settle the event title was necessary.

This time Estredo was not settling for second. Immediately the youngster floated an amazingly high and tweaked shaka in very marginal winds. ‘Gollito’ then killed off Frans’ hopes completely when he bust out his signature move, the ‘Burner’, and a perfect one-handed chacho of his own.

Freestyle Results after 1 Double Elimination:

1. Jose Estredo
2. Tonky Frans
3. Marcilio Browne


Men’s Slalom Racing

Next on the agenda was slalom race 6. Onshore wind meant an exciting 4-bouy course was set winding back towards the beach with a shore line finish within touching distance of the die-hard onlookers on the beach.

Fresh westerly breeze and rolling swell made for exciting racing with crashes and catapults galore as the racers streaked along the fast downwind sections.

After the early rounds the two semi-finals tested many of the top seeds leaving a heavily laden loser’s final.

Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails) won a heat stacked with big hitters such as Finian Maynard (F2 / NeilPryde), Steve Allen (Tabou / Gaastra) and Sylt 2006 winner Micah Buzianis (JP / NeilPryde).

The final turned out to be lucky for some and disastrous for others. Shortly after the start it was abandoned and had to be re-run after a mark drifted free just after the start gun.

Bjorn Dunkerbeck (T1 / North) thanked his lucky stars as he’d just fallen and dropped many places at the first gybe and Ross Williams (Tabou / Gaastra), who led the event at one stage, cursed his bad luck after he crossed prematurely at the re-start and earned a disqualification.

Once the re-sail was underway Antoine Albeau displayed amazing speed to undertake Kevin Pritchard (Starboard / MauiSails) along the first reach.

With second overall for the season and likely podium finish here, the American wisely opted to play it safe along the rest of the course despite allowing Arnon Dagan (Fanatic / NeilPryde) to sneak around him at the first mark and Dunkerbeck to outpace him further along the track.

Albeau took a fourth consecutive race victory ahead of Dagan, who’d suffered a rib injury earlier in the event, and Dunkerbeck, who’s third place here sealed him third overall for the season and second overall for the event.

Albeau’s victory in Germany was the icing on the cake for a champion who’s blitzed all of his competition in unquestionable fashion over the past two seasons.

The Frenchman stepped ashore the Island of Westerland for this regatta with the 2007 trophy guaranteed to be his, but unrelentingly kept his foot on the gas to leave a lasting impression in his rival’s minds for the 2008 campaign.

Men’s Slalom Racing Results:

1. Antoine Albeau
2. Bjorn Dunkerbeck
3. Kevin Pritchard


Men’s wavesailing

The focus then turned to the men’s wave sailing single elimination – the only discipline without a result so far. Sadly conditions were still too marginal and after a short period on standby the organisers opted to run an expression session instead to entertain the excited audience.

Colgate Expression Session

Organisers ACT Agency of Hamburg and sponsors Colgate threw in a whopping €5,000 to tempt the riders into pulling out their most insane moves.

Colin Sifferlen (Starboard / Simmer) took the biggest chunky of the cash home for his massive air flaka over a heavy section of the shore dump surf breaking above bone dry rock!

Alex Mussolini (JP / NeilPryde) scored second for his radical auto rotators in the pocket, Ricardo Campello (JP / NeilPryde) third for his perfect switch chacho 540, Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / Simmer) came fourth for a sweet shaka off the lip, and German favorite Klaas Voget (Fanatic / NeilPryde) 5th for his clean back loop in the difficult conditions.

No result in Sylt means the men’s wave title must be decided at the final event of the year in Scotland.

Kauli Seadi (Quatro / Naish) who won the last event at his home break in Brazil remains the tour leader ahead of Victor Fernandez of Spain who’s already won two events this season.


Women’s Wave Sailing

On Tuesday  the women’s wavesailing single elimination was completed.

Nayra Alonso (Fanatic / Severne) won a career-first single elimination final and so with no further competition today she took the event title ahead of 2006 world champ Iballa Moreno (North).

Also filling the 4-women final line up were German wave specialist Steffi Wahl (F2 / Gaastra), who claimed her first podium result in third, and Junko Nagoshi (F2 / Simmer) of Japan.

Iballa Moreno’s second place finish here also awarded her a second successive wave sailing title which she proudly received on stage in front of a massive throng of onlookers at the famous Sylt end-of-event prize giving.


Women’s Wave Sailing Results

1. Nayra Alonso
2. Iballa Moreno
3. Steffi Wahl
4. Junko Nagoshi

The tour now moves on to Scotland and the Island of Tiree for the Corona Extra PWA World Cup and the conclusion to the men’s wave sailing tour and the final PWA event of the season.

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