James Dinsmore reports from the IFCA Slalom World Championships in Brazil…
Just finished 5 days and (for me) 28 heats of the IFCA Slalom Worlds. Flecheiras in northern Brazil certainly delivered the goods with 15-20knots and relentless sunshine every day. I used my JP Slalom VI 112 in all of the races with 8.6 and 7.8 RS Racing Evo II sails. I slighty regreted my decision to leave my big slalom board at home as it was a bit light on the inside at times. The competition was stiff and the winners finals were packed with PWA top twenty sailors. Sylvain Moussilmani took four bullets ahead of Julian Quentel’s three on the way to winning the event. Australian Steve Allen took third and in doing so prevented a French clean sweep of the podium. Alice Arutkin won the womens competition. Personally my sailing was a bit erratic and I dropped a few key gybes after good starts when I had the likes of Moussilmani breathing down my neck. I had a good battle with Croatian Enrico Marotti but frustratingly lost eleventh place in the final race. I ended up twelfth place overall and can look back on the event as giving me some great experience against top quality opposition from which I hope to build on for next year.
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