The second to last day began with a strange wind direction, so that the course had to be adapted to the new direction from northeast instead of northwest. As a consequence of the change, in the first heat Leonid Judin was confused and wanted to ride to the third instead of the first mark. When he realised it, he had already gone so far downwind, that he had to do two tacks to pass the first mark. [more]
Unfortunately the wind just lasted around 30 minutes hence it was possible to finish just one elimination of the Masters/Grandmasters and two of the Youth. The result after this day was a very tight ranking in the category Master. Marco Begalli was poised take back the lead and send Erkan Morgan back to second place.
The first of the Grandmasters was Markus Purwitzer from Austria with 23 points, closely followed by Philip Adamidis from Greece on scored 23,7 points. After the first day when Adamidis could not attend the world cup, he had a sensational comeback from last place to second rank in the Grandmasters. Also the third and the fourth places were very close to each other. Peter Mueller and Leonid Judin both had 29 points, but Mueller had a better discard than Judin.
Because of this situation it was going to be an exciting last day of racing!
The last day of the 2016 IFCA Slalom World Championship in Soma Bay, Egypt dawned. It was the last chance for the competitors to climb up in the ranking. It was the last chance for the audience to witness the spectacular races on the water. It was also the last chance for the team of SurfMotion to prove their ability to host such an event.
The wind conditions in the morning were similar to the conditions of the previous day, so that it was possible to anticipate the development of the wind direction and the strength. At 10 am the competitors were able to finish the finals of the 11th elimination at around 14 knots, which could not be completed the day before.
After 13 eliminations in the category of the Masters and Grandmasters, 25 eliminations of the Youths and 77 heats in total, the competition ended today, the 6th of July, at 2 o’clock. On this last day the ranking changed just slightly, but it was a nip-and-tack race between Peter Mueller and Leonid Judin. 3 eliminations took place on the last day, which allowed Mueller to take over the fourth place from Judin with half a point difference. In the end it can be said, that the competitors put everything in to get a good result and Marco Begalli is the deserved winner of the World Cup! Congratulations!!!
The young racers were able to complete four eliminations, which did not change the ranking. The distance between the racers was too big to change the ranking on the last day. The champion of the Youth category is also from Italy and his name is Francesco Scagliola. Congratulations!!!
In the evening everyone attended the award ceremony. After speeches from the governor of the Red Sea, the President of the IFCA and Peter Mueller, who was the host of the Event at his station SurfMotion, the big farewell party started to celebrate the successful competition.
During the last 6 days, the audience witnessed many exciting races, happy winners, funny crashes, funky parties and a lot of sunshine. We as a team of SurfMotion are proud of the event and would be happy to see everyone again in the Soma Bay.
