Airwaves Noumea PWA Dream Cup

Day 5: Noumea delivers again as Offringa wins 2nd world title, Cousin performs perfectly & Albeau hits back

Noumea delivered more world class racing today as trade winds between 20-30 knots provided another exhilarating day of slalom, which saw the women’s world title decided, while there was another swing in what is turning out to be an epic fight for the men’s world crown.

Women’s

Delphine Cousin (Starboard / Gun Sails) produced another imperious display as she claimed a further two emphatic victories to hold a commanding lead at the top of event rankings as the 24 year old now holds a perfect record — having won an incredible 6 out of the 8 races completed. Barring an absolute disaster Cousin has the event title wrapped up with a day to spare, such has her dominance been at this event, which would result in her claiming second place in the overall rankings.

Meanwhile, Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins), is officially the 2015 PWA Women’s Slalom World Champion as she now cannot mathematically finish outside of the top 8. Offringa now has two slalom world titles to her name and this caps off a magnificent 2015 for the Aruban gem, who won an incredible 8th freestyle world crown earlier in the year, before also securing the final place on the prestigious podium in the waves for the first time in her career.

Lena Erdil (Patrik / Point-7 / Mystic / AL360) looks as though she has deservedly cemented 3rd place in both the event and overall rankings after another solid performance today, which saw the Turk use her blistering pace to earn two, 2nd place finishes. 

Behind the top 3 — Marion Mortefon (Patrik / Gun Sails), Fulya Ünlü (Starboard / Severne) and Cagla Kubat (Starboard / Severne) — remain in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively, although there is scope for that to change tomorrow with only 8 points separating the 3 sailors and whoever beats who will climb up the overall rankings.

Men’s

Heading into the final day of the event Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde / Chris Benz) leads the fight for the world title after hauling himself from 7th place at the end of Day 4 to 2nd by the end of play today. In the first race of the day the reigning world champion finished 3rd behind the only other man left standing in the title race — Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North) — and Cedric Bordes (Tabou / GA Sails), who won Elimination 7. At this point Albeau had already moved into 3rd and therefore assumed control of the title race, but he further improved his position by claiming an emphatic victory in Race 8, which he celebrated by fist pumping the air as he crossed the finish line ahead of teammate Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde), Mortefon and Taty Frans (Starboard / GA Sails / Mystic). However, with just one race planned for tomorrow, there is still not much room for error and tomorrow promises to see a pulsating finish to what has been an intriguing title fight.

Antoine Albeau when asked about being under pressure directly after winning: "I have the same pressure since the start of the event. It's all the same, I don't look at the results and just concentrate on trying to do my best and try not to make any human mistakes — we’ll just have to see tomorrow.”

Pierre Mortefon still leads the event and holds a significant 12.4 point advantage over Albeau, so it looks as though the 26 year old will end the season with another event victory and in terms of the title race, he has done everything he possibly can and his fate now lies in other peoples hands. Either way Mortefon has enjoyed a fantastic season and he will finish the season as the vice-world champion at a minimum, which will be the talented Frenchman’s best result yet. 

As things stand Taty Frans is currently on course to achieve his first podium finish on the PWA Slalom World Tour. The Bonairean has been in terrific form over the course of the week — qualifying for 6 out of 8 winners’ finals — and holds a 5 point advantage over his closest rival Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne) heading into the last day.

Cedric Bordes was the days biggest mover, which sees the 31 year old rise all the way into 6th place having been outside of the overall top 10 yesterday. Bordes produced a terrific performance in Race 7 to record his first bullet of the week as he held off the stern challenge of Pierre Mortefon and Antoine Albeau, before recording an 8th place finish in the next race. 

Elsewhere Laurence Carey (Starboard / North) enjoyed an excellent day as he booked his place in a winners’ final for the first time, but unfortunately the final didn’t quite go to plan as he was involved in a major pileup with Taty Frans, Cyril Moussilmani and Malte Reuscher (JP / NeilPryde) before the start line.

Marco Lang (Fanatic / North) and Enes Yilmazer (Starboard / Severne) were involved in a collision in Heat 6, Race 8, which saw Lang take a fin to the arm, fortunately the Austrian was wearing a wetsuit top so although injuring his arm there is no break or anything more serious. Meanwhile, Yilmazer was still able to recover to claim the final qualifying place into the quarterfinals.

The forecast for tomorrow should provide a scintillating conclusion to the PWA Slalom World Tour with strong trade winds expected again. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10am with the action commencing from 10:30am onwards. The plan is to run one more race for the men and two for the women. Make sure you don’t miss any of the action by tuning into www.pwaworldtour.com — here you’ll be able to see everything as it happens via the PWA live stream.

Women’s Current Standings After Elimination 8 — Airwaves Noumea PWA Dream Cup

1st Delphine Cousin (Starboard / Gun Sails)

2nd Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins)

3rd Lena Erdil (Patrik / Point-7 / Mystic / AL360)

4th Marion Mortefon (Patrik / Gun Sails)

5th Fulya Ünlü (Starboard / Severne)

Men’s Current Standings After Elimination 8 — Airwaves Noumea PWA Dream Cup

1st Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North

2nd Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde / Chris Benz)  

3rd Taty Frans (Starboard / GA Sails / Mystic)

4th Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)

5th Micah Buzianis (JP) 

6th Cedric Bordes (Tabou / GA Sails)

7th Ben Van der Steen (Tabou / GA Sails)

8th Antoine Questel (Starboard / GA Sails) 

9th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Point-7) 

10th Ross Williams (Tabou / GA Sails / Mystic)

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