– Steve Allen takes the overall lead in front of the German hero Bernd Flessner
–

Westerland/Sylt (Germany). Wind force 4 picking up to 5 over the whole day
ensured a full program at the Brandenburger Strand for the Windsurfing Euro-Cup.
Race director Walter Mielke decided at the Skippers Meeting to run another three
races first in order to grant the racers a second discard.

The favourite Steve Allen (AUS-0, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) from Australia was able
to score two second positions and a sixth place. He is able to keep up his lead
in this discipline with a total of 9,0 points. Still on the second position
we find Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (ARG-3, Starboard, Neil Pryde) from Argentina who
has 11 points after he was forced to retire once because of equipment damage
and scored an 11th and a victory in the last race of the day. We can see an
exciting head-to-head-fight for the third place: Devon Boulon (ISV-1, F2, Windwing)
from the Virgin Islands is able to slip ahead of Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1, Starboard,
Neil Pryde) by the tie break rules. Both racers have 18 points but Devon Boulon
was able to beat Andrea Cucci more times then vice versa.

At noon the wind got stronger and accelerated to 20 knots. This allowed the
change of the discipline in favour of Slalom to run three complete slalom eliminations
in the course of the afternoon. Over 25.000 spectators followed the exciting
slalom action as the course was set up directly in front of the promenade. The
finish was even directly at the beach which made it possible to see the „white
in the eyes of the competitors“.

In the first elimination the reigning Euro-Cup Champion Steve Allen was able
to prove that he is not only a racing expert. With a victory in this slalom
he underlined his ambitions for the overall title at the EC Westerland/Sylt.
On the second place followed the German record champion Bernd Flessner (GER-16,
F2, Neil Pryde) from the island Norderney. It was possible to feel his excitement
about the re introduction of the Slalom as a discipline of the German Windsurf
Cup. The third place went to Arnon Dagan (ISR-1, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) from Israel.

In the second Slalom there was no change in the top-2: Euro-Cup Champion Steve
Allen in front of the German Champion Bernd Flessner. But this time Andi Laufer
(GER-93, Lorch, Starboard) from Konstanz was able to win the third place.

In the last Slalom Steve Allen was again dominating in front of Bernd Flessner.
The Dutch Fanatic rider Pieter Bijl (NED-0, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) was able to
achieve a sensation with his third place: He plugged a freeride sail to his
new slalom weapon and scored a very good position in the strong fleet which
was mostly equipped with bigger racesails.

After three slalom eliminations and tree victories Steve Allen has a save lead
in this discipline. With a total of 3 points. With double points of 6 Bernd
Flessner follows on the second position. After quiete a big gap Helge Wilkens
was able to ensure his third position as he pressented a very consistent performance
with sixth places in all the three slaloms giving him a total of 18 points.
Several favourites like Andi Laufer and Arnon Dagan desperately need another
slalom to have discard.

In the overall ranking of the event in which each competitors can introduce
the best two results out of the three disciplines Steve Allen was able to take
the lead with the optimum points of 2 by his triple victory in the Slalom today.
The German Windsurfing legend Bernd Flessner is on his heals with a second place
in the slalom and a fourth place in the wave-freestyle giving him 6 points.
Only 4 points behind we find Helge Wilkens who scored a third place in the slalom
and a seventh place in the Wave-Freestyle.

For the final day (Sunday) the forecasts are predicting good winds. So we are
looking forward to some more great windsurfing action which can significantly
change the provisional results of the single disciplines and also the overall
ranking.

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You can find more information, results, pictures etc. and follow the competitions
online on the official Website of the Windsurfing Euro-Cup www.euro-cup.org
and on the FW Class Website www.formulawindsurfing.org .