Day 4 at the Hotel Playa Surf CBbC Tenerife Windsurf World Cup, which is part of the Wind and Waves Festival in El Medano, was action packed from start to finish with Juniors and Challengers telling the story of the day.
The action kicked off early with the Under 15 Boys competition and it was back-to-back victories in the Canary Islands for Dennis Kolb Gonzalez (Simmer Style) - riding to a level far above his competitors, stomping back loops and radical turns to take the win. Mikey Maclean (Duotone Windsurfing) from Tiree, Scotland, took second place nailing the scores on the waves, but missing the jumps to challenge Gonzalez. Third place went to Jeff Francois from Belgium with German, Anton Gobisch (Duotone Windsurfing), in 4th.
Then the attention turned to the Junior and Pro Junior Girls. The Girls format is different from the boys and they sail three rounds of straight finals, where the results are added together to find the winners. The first of these finals was completed today for both the Junior and Pro Junior Girls. In the Junior Girls it was a closely fought battle between Natsuki Wakasa (Goya Windsurfing) and Trine Gobisch (Duotone Windsurfing) with only 0.4 points separating the two. Trine's 5.75 opening wave gave her an early lead, but Natsuki put down a 3.12 point forward loop at the end of the heat to seal the victory. 3rd place went to Fumi Akita with Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / Neilpryde) in 4th. In the Pro Juniors, Sol Degrieck (Severne Windsurfing) took a convincing victory and laid down a heat that will be hard to beat in the Pro Women - scoring 13.12 points just on the waves!
With the waves and wind picking up, attention switched to the Challengers - where four men and four women had the chance to qualify for the main bracket. Noah Vocker (Bruch Boards / Sailloft), after an 8 year break from competition and Josep Pons (Point 7) were the stand out male riders in the challengers - winning their respective sides of the draw and earning their spots in the draw. They are joined by Sammy Ferraro (Patrik) and 2025 Junior Boys World Champion, Javier Escribano (Goya Windsurfing / MFC), who makes it to the main bracket for the first time.
In the women, it was the Junior Girls who really shone through in the Challengers, showing the talent of the next generation with Bobbi-Lynn De Jong, Natsuki Wakasa and Trine Gobisch all passing through to the main draw, alongside Milanka Linde.
You can watch all the highlights from Day 4 here.
The forecast on Day 5 is looking to be the strongest of the event and the attention will undoubtedly turn to the Pro Divisions with the call being made at 8:00am. Stay tuned for all the action right here.