Men’s Double Elimination

Picking up the double elimination where it left off yesterday, Quincy Offringa’s (Starboard, Severne) run of form was halted by Leo Ray (Naish, Naish, MFC), who looked like he might go on to do big things. Unfortunately for Ray, he was on a collision course with Ricardo Campello (JP, NeilPryde, MFC) who shattered any hopes the Frenchman had of progressing further.
 
Ian Mouro Lemos (JP, NeilPryde) showed promise, but was shot down by Antxon Otaegui (JP, NeilPryde, MFC). However, Otaegui’s run was to be short lived thanks to crazy air chachooing Taty Frans (Starboard, North).
 
Frans then fell at the hand of Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra), who subsequently departed courtesy of Campello, who was gaining more and more momentum with every heat, and was one of the few sailors fully utilizing the set waves for their jumping potential.
 
Campello’s steamroller like run remained on its course for Browne, who sat in waiting ready to defend his previous day’s single elimination victory. Next on the hit list was team mate Normen Günzlein (JP, NeilPryde), who had little in the way of a reply to Campello’s fully planning backloops, and awesome tweaked pushloops.
 
Moving on to battle with Tonky Frans (F2, Gaastra), Frans had some bad luck, breaking his fin moments into the heat. By the time a replacement board had been handed to him by brother Taty, the damage had already been done by Campello, who advanced to face Jose Estredo (Fanatic, North, MFC) in the next round.
 
The ensuing showdown was one of the most explosive heats of the competition so far. Estredo worked the crowd into a frenzy with a monster one handed air flaka, only for Campello to reply with a perfectly landed air chachoo. When the dust finally settled, defiant Campello had edged ahead on the judges’ score sheets, and finally had his shot at Browne’s throne.
 
Starting well, Browne looked like he’d hold off Campello, but some costly errors towards the end of the heat allowed the Venezuelan to edge ahead, meaning the pair would have to go head to head one last time to finally settle the scores.
 
Back on form, Browne launched a full-scale attack, which included a crazy air funnel, a huge ponch, and a monumental ten-foot high air flaka. Campello rose to the challenge with a routine that included a misty flip and a pushloop. It was always going to be a close call, but Browne’s technical and consistent run ultimately earned him the double elimination victory.
 

Women’s Double Elimination

With eye’s firmly set on Offringa (Starboard, NeilPryde), who sat in waiting after winning the single elimination the previous day, Daida Moreno (North) mounted a sustained attack from the depths of the elimination ladder to within touching distance of the young Aruban.
 
Defeating Anna Johansson (Naish, Naish), Nayra Alonso (Fanatic, Severne), Laure Treboux (Fanatic, North), and sister Iballa (North), Daida only had topple Junko Nagoshi (Simmer, Dakine) and Yolanda De Brendt (Fanatic, North) before she had a shot at Offringa’s first position stronghold.
 
Nagoshi piled on the pressure early with solid forward loop and a flaka, however Moreno was on devastating form. She nailed a one-footed forward loop, a clew first forward loop, and a fully planning spock to convincingly defeat the Japanese freestyler.
 
Lining up De Brendt in her sights, it was no longer plain sailing for Moreno. De Brendt, firing on all cylinders, threw down a puneta, a shuvit and a flaka. The comprehensive run proved too much for Moreno to match, putting a premature end to her impressive run.
 
Advancing, De Brendt was given another shot at Offringa. The subsequent brawl raised the bar of women’s freestyle to a whole new level. Both sailors went off, Offringa funneled, De Brendt replied with a puneta, Offringa pulled a switch stance chachoo, De Brendt nailed a fully planning spock 540. They were literally inseparable.
 
The decisive blow would come when Offringa executed a massive air flaka. De Brendt had no reply to the epic move, granting Offringa the victory, and the first double elimination as hers.
 
The day also saw inroads made into the men’s and women’s second single elimination. All the big names in the men’s fleet have advanced through to the semi finals, however contenders Andre Paskowski (Fanatic, North), Antxon Otaegui, Nicolas Akgazciyan (Starboard, Gun Sails) and Cheo Diaz (RRD, Simmer) have fallen by the wayside.
 
In the women’s fleet, Iballa Moreno (North) and Silvia Alba Orozco (MFC) have also departed the ranks.
 
Tomorrow’s skippers’ meeting is scheduled for 10.30am, with the freestylers hitting the water from 11.00am onwards