ISWC Speed Windsurfing World Championship Fuerteventura – Final Results
Antoine Albeau (FRA, Starboard) and Karin Jaggi (SUI, F2, North) are the speed windsurfing world champions 2008. After 7 rounds of speedsailing in challenging conditions, Albeau took the victory with a perfect score of 3.5 points.
Vice world champion became Patrik Diethelm (ITA, F2, North). Bjorn Dunkerbeck (SUI, T1/Proof, North) took the last days race as a discard, as he was already well ahead of Finian Maynard (BVI) in fourth.
In the women’s fleet, it was very close racing in the beginning of the event between Valerie Ghibaudo (FRA, Loft Sails), taking two bullets in the first rounds, and Karin Jaggi, winning the next four races. The final day brought no changes to the ranking anymore. Marion Raisi (FRA) taking third place then.
The event started with challenging conditions as the wind was pretty light in correlation to the deep angle of the course. The top speeds came close to 40 knots, with a close battle between Albeau and Diethelm. With improving wind speeds Dunkerbeck came closer, but was never able to really challenge the top duo. The places behind were hard-fought for between Maynard and the Moussilmani brothers, Slalom specialists Dan Ellis (GBR, Fanatic) and Peter Volwater (F2, North) as well as living legend Anders Bringdal (SWE) completing the top 10.
With higher wind speeds and the high tide in the afternoon the top speeds improved over the curse of the week, with Antoine Albeau again setting the top speed of the event with 40.54 knots average over the 500m speedcourse.
The women’s competition was ever more thrilling, with a tie in points after 4 races between Karin Jaggi and Valerie Ghibaudo. Karin was then able to take advantage of the harder conditions towards the end of the competition, and closely snatched the victory. The final place on the podium was open for a long time, with Zara Davis (GBR) retiring after round 6 it became close between Marion Raisi and Emanuelle Duby (FRA), with the better end for Marion.
The next tour stop will be the European Championship in Karpathos, beginning on the 20th of August. All top riders are expected to take part in this event again, to get important points for the years world cup ranking.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.speedworldcup.com
