After five days the IFCA European Slalom Championship on Borkum came to an end today. Michele Becker (GER-277, Patrik Windsurfing) from Kiel, Germany, succeeded against a strong field of competitors in the contest of eight slalom eliminations. He is now the IFCA European Slalom Champion 2023 and can also look forward to almost 4,000 euros in prize money. The Vice European Champion title also remains in German hands at the European Championships in home waters: World Cup pro Nico Prien (GER-7, JP, Neil Pryde) from Schönberg came in a close second. Fabian Wolf (GER-404, FMX Racing, Gun Sails), who is otherwise active in the Olympic iQFOiL class, was able to complete the triple triumph for Germany with a third place.“Awesome! This is my first title win at a championship. The European title is the reward for a lot of training and hard work. I can’t believe that it has now paid off so much. The European Championship on Borkum was a great event. Many thanks to all who made it possible”, says Michele Becker as the newly crowned IFCA European Slalom Champion.Becker showed an impressive performance at the European Championship. He was able to win five of the eight slalom eliminations. In addition, he took two second places. The Kieler thus dominated the regatta. Even an injury on the second day of the event could not stop the exceptional athlete. He suffered a cut on his thigh by the foil system. With heavy bleeding he fought his way through the complete elimination. But he did not let himself be distracted and still secured the victory in this race. On land, however, Becker was then awaited by an ambulance, which took him directly to the island hospital on Borkum. About an hour and ten stitches later he was discharged, but had missed one race completely. So on Saturday it became exciting once again. With another race victory Becker then clarified everything. In eight races the three worst results may be discarded. In the end Becker became IFCA Foil Slalom European Champion with the ideal score of 0,0.Nico Prien had a catastrophic start into the European Championships, as he first started in a wrong heat and was therefore disqualified in this race. Afterwards, however, he lived up to his role as a title contender. In the end he was the only one who could beat the European Champion Becker in single races. Prien won a total of three races. In addition, there were three second and one third place. The World Cup pro ended up with 4.0 points and thus secured the Vice European Champion in Slalom.Fabian Wolf recorded exclusively top-5 results, with two exceptions that he was able to discard. Thus, the athlete from Kiel consequently prevailed in the fight for the third place on the podium with a total of 16.0 points. Germany can therefore be happy about a triple success at the European Championship at home.
As the best foreign participant, Italian Ennio Dal Pont (ITA-456, Fanatic, Duotone) was able to capture fourth place. Three top-5 finishes and otherwise exclusively top-10 results provided a strong base. In the event standings, Dal Pont comes in with 23.0 points. The top-5 in the IFCA European Slalom Championship is completed by Scotty Stallmann (GBR-68, Tabou, GA Sails) of Great Britain. He is just one point behind Ennio Dal Pont with 24.0 points.In the women’s field, Justine Lemeteyer (FRA-171, FMX Racing, S2 Maui) prevailed as expected. Her performance has to be highlighted. She competed in the men’s field and took a sensational twelfth place there. The exceptional athlete even managed to make it into the final once. With this she showed her strength to numerous men from the slalom world elite. Second place in the women’s race went to Maé Davico (FRA-203, Patrik, Loft Sails) from France ahead of Sophie Persine (FRA-893, JP, Gun Sails). In the women’s race, there was thus an all-French podium.Best Youth U21 at the European Championship was the German youngster Jonne Heimann (GER-107, JP, Neil Pryde). With 26.0 points he finished a sensational place eight in the overall ranking. If he hadn’t crashed at the last jibe in the last race, he would have made it into the top-5 and with that into the prize money. Second place in Youth U21 goes to Leo Richter (GER-9, JP, Neil Pryde) from Kiel who overall scored a solid tenth place. Third place is taken by Koen Hessels (NED-88, Starboard, Severne) from the Netherlands who overall finished on eleventh position.Best Junior U17 is Eric Wehkamp (GER-240, Fanatic, Duotone) from Kiel with an excellent 18th place overall. Best Grandmaster is Rolf Hauf (GER-786, Fanatic, Duotone) in 26th place.The IFCA Slalom European Championship within the Multivan Windsurf Cup Borkum was a great success. The event was endowed with a total of 10,000 euros in prize money. 9.000 Euro by the Nordseeheilbad Borkum GmbH and additionally 1.000 Euro within the “Grand Prix of the LVM Versicherung”. Nearly 40 participants from 14 different nations had registered. The only drawback of an otherwise ideal event was that the wind was unfortunately not strong enough for the second discipline Fin Slalom to take place. Nevertheless, official races could be held on all four competition days. In the end, there were no less than eight complete slalom eliminations. Thousands of visitors came to the promenade at the North Sea Aquarium during the event and followed the races on the water. The courses were laid out directly in front of the beach, so that the spectators could watch the races of the windsurfing elite as in a slalom arena. For the island of Borkum, the Multivan Windsurf Cup has become one of the big event highlights.“The Multivan Windsurf Cup was awesome once again. The mixture of top-class sport, attractive event program and parties every evening is an attraction for our visitors and helps us to further develop the tourist profile of Borkum. We are already working on welcoming the event back to Borkum next year for Corpus Christi”, said Pia Hosemann as Vice Tourism Director.:: Results of the IFCA European Slalom Championship on Borkum 2023
