La Torche PWA Grand Slam

Day 6: Dieter Van der Eyken takes victory in Tow-in Final

High pressure continued to dominate on Day 6 of the La Torche PWA Grand Slam meaning the wave fleet remained on hold again, while the men’s slalom fleet registered for their final event of the season between 10am-11am.

At 4:15pm the tow-in final featuring — Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne), Leon Jamaer (JP / NeilPryde), Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) and Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) was held in wall-to-wall sunshine and waves of a more appropriate size to allow the sailors to really show what they can do.

Each sailor was given two consecutive attempts, before being given one final opportunity to land their biggest moves. After winning yesterday’s qualification Dieter Van der Eyken proved too strong again as he claimed the victory by landing a stalled pasko and a sick tabletop forward to earn 14.65 points. Van der Eyken had this to say after winning the tow-in: “I’m very happy to win. It’s always difficult competing against Amado and Leon landed an amazing jump, so I was a little lucky he didn’t get a good backup jump. I think it was also good to see such a variety of jumps and I was very happy with my first two efforts, but not so much my last crash haha.”

Amado Vrieswijk finished in a narrow second place as he missed out by just 0.15 of a point after accumulating a total score of 14.5 points after landing a pasko and a culo.

Meanwhile, Leon Jamaer (JP / NeilPryde) completed the podium. The German recorded the highest scoring move with a radical one-handed pushloop to earn 9 points, but had to count a 3.125 point ponch in the opening round.

Sarah-Quita Offringa finishes the tow-in in fourth place with a ponch being her best move of the day.

High pressure looks as though it continues to dominate for the next two days, but there’s the possibility of some racing on Friday and Saturday with stronger easterly winds currently forecast. The skippers’ meeting for tomorrow will be held at 10am (GMT+1) for both fleets. Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to stay up to date with all the latest from La Torche.

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