Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing Grand Slam

July 5, 2023 Created by Chris Yates

Day 5: Blanca Alabau & Enrico Marotti become first sailors to claim racing victories in Pozo since 2009

The first Slalom event in Pozo Izquierdo for 14 years finished in style on Day 5 of the 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing Grand Slam with a further 5 eliminations for the Women’s and 3 eliminations for the Men’s being completed in 20-30 knots and some treacherously tricky water conditions, which saw some heavy wipeouts and thrilling rail-to-rail racing. Ultimately though, there was nothing anyone could do to stop Blanca Alabau (Starboard / Severne Sails) and Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde), who both led the event from the first day - from claiming respective victories here.

Slalom

Women’s

Blanca Alabau (Starboard / Severne Sails) started the day with the aim of winning her first event on the World Tour and the overnight leader was able to do exactly that despite a wobble in the opening elimination of the day, which saw the Spaniard fall at the first buoy. However, Alabau recovered brilliantly to finish 3rd and from there she never looked like she was going to relinquish the event lead - especially after winning the next race. Alabau has been incredibly consistent in Pozo and since finishing 7th in the opening race she did not finish out the top 4 once, whilst the 26-year-old won 6 out of the 15 eliminations completed. Alabau only achieved her first podium finish earlier this year in Lake Garda, but after victory in Pozo she emerges as a genuine world title contender and currently heads up the overall world rankings heading into Fuerte.

Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) secures second place in the Slalom, which is a phenomenal result considering the Aruban hasn’t really been training on the race course. Offringa, who is a former 5-time Slalom world champion, only finished outside the top 3 twice in 15 eliminations as her straight-line speed on the fin combined with consistent gybing allowed her to keep the foils at bay!

Reigning world champion - Marion Mortefon (Fanatic / Duotone) - completes the podium here, which will see her sitting in second place in the overall rankings. The 31-year-old finished the event in style as she showed her best form by winning 2 out of the 5 eliminations completed today - one of which included a great inside gybe at the last to set up a thrilling drag race with Offringa to the line, which Mortefon would win in a photo finish.

Jenna Gibson (Fanatic / Duotone) eventually finishes the event in 4th place and after yesterday’s woes, it looked like that may be the theme again today as she missed a couple more opportunities to win both Eliminations 12 & 13. Credit where credit is due though, as Gibson shook off that disappointment to finish third in Elimination 14, before finishing the event on a real high after claiming back-to-back bullets. The Brit clearly has a huge amount of potential and with a bit of tidying up on her gybes, she certainly has the potential to challenge for event victories in the future as she led over half of the races here at some point.

Justine Lemeteyer (FMX Racing / S2Maui / LOKEFOIL) started the day in fifth and that’s where she finishes the event.

Men’s

After the completion of the opening elimination of the day, overnight leader Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde) saw his advantage cut from 3.4 points to just 2.3 points. The Croat was leading Elimination 8, but dropped his gybe at the first and with his main rival - Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) - finishing 3rd it looked like we could see a thrilling showdown. However, Marotti had different ideas and he quickly bounced back by winning Elimination 9 to put the event to bed with an elimination to spare. Victory here now means that Marotti has won two out of the last three events - having also won his first event in Japan late last year, whilst he also becomes the first man since - Antoine Albeau (JP / NeilPryde) - in 2009 to win a racing event in Pozo Izquierdo.

Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) follows up his victory in Italy with a superb second place here with the Pole sailing unbelievably consistently again to maintain the world title race lead. Rutkowski qualified for every Winners’ Final in Italy and continued that trend here, which means he is now the only sailor this year to have qualified for every Winners’ Final thus far (14 out of 14). With second place secured before the last race, the Pole clearly enjoyed himself as he threw in several duck gybes during the last elimination. The reigning world champion will now set his sights on Fuerteventura.

Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / Duotone / Chopper Fins / Phantom Foils) has a habit of pouncing late and the Frenchman did it again today by finishing second and third in the last two races to pip - Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails) - to the final place on the podium by just 0.3 of a point, whilst in Italy earlier this year Mortefon won the last race of the event to jump into second place. Third place here will see the 2019 world champion sitting in second heading into Fuerteventura at the end of the month.

Besides Rutkowski, Matteo Iachino is the only other sailor to boast a 100% qualifying record for the Winners’ Finals here, so there are obviously plenty of positives to take away, however, that news probably won’t help soften the blow of missing out on the podium in the manner in which he did. The Italian will head into Fuerte third in the overall rankings.

Nicolas Prien (JP / NeilPryde) records his best result to date on the World Tour as the German walks away from Pozo with a solid 5th place. Prien qualified for 80% of the Winners’ Finals, whilst he never finished outside the top 9 in the 10 eliminations completed. The 27-year-old signed off the event in the perfect fashion as he secured his first bullet on the World Tour in the last race.

Jordy Vonk (Fanatic / Duotone) was the only man to win an elimination on a fin over the 3 days of racing and Flying Dutchman records his best result of the season - 6th - narrowly edging out - Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Severne Sails) - by just 0.7 of a point. Vrieswijk himself did extremely well to recover from a slow start after the Bonairean was eliminated from the quarterfinals in both of the opening races to eventually finish 7th.

The top 10 is completed by Michele Becker (Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils), who continues his fine start to full-time life on tour having finished 5th in Italy - 8th here - Bruno Martini (JP / NeilPryde), who earlier in the day won his first elimination on a Foil - 9th - and Jimmy Thieme (Fanatic / Duotone), who competed on the fin in every race and also records his best result so far.

Like Thieme, Taty Frans (Future Fly / Point-7) also competed 100% on the fin and finishes 11th ahead of Alexia Mathis (Tabou / GA Sails), Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils), Ingmar Daldorf (Tabou / GA Sails), Cedric Bordes (Tabou / Severne Sails) and Antoine Questel (FMX Racing / S2Maui).

The forecast for Thursday has improved slightly from the beginning of the week with slightly stronger winds and waves of up to 1.5 metres currently predicted, which will either see the Men’s and Women’s Wave fleets in action again or we could possibly see the introduction of the Youth’s for the first time at the 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing Grand Slam. All Wave fleets will meet again at 9:30am tomorrow morning with the action commencing from 10am (GMT+1) onwards.

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Result 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing World Cup - Women’s Slalom

1st Blanca Alabau (ESP | Starboard / Severne Sails)
2nd Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Marion Mortefon (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone)
4th Jenna Gibson (GBR | Fanatic / Duotone)
5th Justine Lemeteyer (FRA | FMX Racing / S2Maui / LOKEFOIL)

Result 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing World Cup - Men’s Slalom

1st Enrico Marotti (CRO | JP / NeilPryde)
2nd Maciek Rutkowski (POL | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails)
3rd Pierre Mortefon (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone / Chopper Fins / Phantom Foils)
4th Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)
5th Nicolas Prien (GER | JP / NeilPryde)
6th Jordy Vonk (NED | Fanatic / Duotone)
7th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Severne Sails)
8th Michele Becker (GER | Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils)
9th Bruno Martini (ITA | JP / NeilPryde)
10th Jimmy Thieme (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone)

Result 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing World Cup - Women’s Wave Single Elimination

1st Daida Moreno (ESP | Bruch Boards / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Iballa Moreno (ESP | Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
4th Justyna Sniady (POL | NorthSails / Maui Ultra Fins)
5th Isabel Trivino Delgado (ESP | Severne / Severne Sails)
5th Maria Navarro Morales (ESP | Goya Windsurfing)
5th Lina Erpenstein (GER | Severne / Severne Sails)
5th Sol Degrieck (BEL | Severne / Severne Sails)

Result 2023 Gran Canaria PWA Windsurfing World Cup - Men’s Wave Single Elimination

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