What a World Cup in freestyle and slalom!
Great to see the girls ripping so hard! It was perfect to have a spot that offers the best sailing. Small ramps for a bit of jumping also. Happy to land burners, skopus and backloops in the heats and make it to 3 out of 4 finals against my amiga Sarah-Quita.
Looking back at the results I feel like the 2nd place went away in a gust… Losing the first double with 0,15 points by one mistake was hard, but that was a reality. It’s what makes the competition so exciting!
After the 2nd double when I got 2nd I was getting ready for slalom and released all the freestyle focus, just before getting told to do a sail off against Maaike in case we won’t have more wind. We both had one 2nd place each in the two double eliminations.
Fair enough, just not ideal straight after the final. It was not even in my mind that we would do a sail off while still having more wind that day and 3 more days to go. I did not win this one, and Maaike sailed better in that heat to take overall 2nd place.
I’m already thinking about the next event in Fuerteventura that will start in 4 weeks, and I am feeling super motivated! It’s been amazing to be here in Portugal and the event really pushed my limits in both slalom and freestyle! Now I feel like anything is possible!
Congrats to Sarah, Maaike and Arrianne for overall 1st and 2nd and 4th! I’m so happy that we have so many close heats and can show women windsurfers what is possible! We are all here to make it better for the future generation’s and I do think we did a good job!
For freestyle, my results were:
1st single elimination: 2nd place
1st double: 3rd place
2nd single: 2nd place
2nd double: 2nd place
Overall 3rd place.
In slalom, I ended up with a boring 11th place. I learned a lot about 48 knots slalom sailing, and manage to get to half of the winner’s finals and won one loser´s final. I had higher expectations in slalom if we would be racing on bigger gear like 7.8, but in the high wind slalom, my focus was more about getting used to it. I´m really happy with my starts and speed, but I was falling too much in the gybes when I had less pressure. Good to test your self and know what to work on for next year slalom World Tour!
Overall it was the most fun World Cup I ever competed in! Thanks to FeelViana and all the organizers for making this event happen!
I will come back for training and the next year World Cup! Now we will continue our roadtrip searching for more wind!
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