Steven van Broeckhoven and Sarah-Quita Offringa have won the double elimination at the PWA Freestyle event on Fuerteventura. They both not only have won this elimination, but as well the event and the PWA Freestyle worldtitle 2011.

 

The wind picked up quite late at Sotavento like on the previous days, but was a bit stronger, which allowed also the biggest sailors, liek Steven van Broeckhoven to grab the 4,8m in some heats. 4-5 men heats and 3-4 ladies heats had to be sailed to have the final results in the first double elimination. Duncan Coombs, the race director, definitely had been waiting for the right moment to start the most exciting heats.

Tonky defeated in the first heat of the day his bro Taty, who had a broken rope on his rigg. Then it came up to a pure Bonaire duel in between Kiri and Tonky. Kiri could win by half a point in a thrilling heat.

 

Tonky Frans winning one heat after the other – Pic: PWA/John Carter

With a sacred place in the final up for grabs, Steven Van Broeckhoven and Kiri Thode opened the heat with all guns blazing. Steven wowed the crowds with an ankle dry culo, whilst Thode opted for a double air funnel and an incredible triple spock. The astounding spectacle continued throughout the heat with massive Konos, Burners, Shove It Spock 540° resulting in the scores being ridiculously tight with Van Broeckhoven narrowly taking the win with a 3-2 decision from the judges.

Having defended his second place, and earned a position in the final Van Broeckhoven was fired up when he faced the four times world champion Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo. Estredo sailed a perfect heat landing all of his most daring moves, and filling his score sheet in record time. However Van Broeckhoven timed his moves to perfection nailing a monster culo and massive konos on both tacks in a desperate bid to win the heat. Steven definitely had an impressive height in most of the moves and rotated extremely quick and with a lot of power. The Belgium machine was awarded the win with a 4-1 decision from the judges. With one victory each the pair would have to go head-to-head one more time to declare who would be the overall event winner.

Steven van Broeckhoven – Pic: PWA/John Carter

So both had to sail again for the event win in the Men’s Super-final! The crowds on the beach fell silent as the sailors lined up and waited for the green flag to be raised. Estredo was first to move landing a clean spock-culo in front of the judges. Van Broeckhoven fought back with a dry Ponch and a colossal Shaka Flaka. A mind-blowing nine minutes of action flew by as the world’s best freestylers performed every move possible to impress the judges. Steven already had finished his show almost a minute before the heat came to the end. He already had all 7 moves done on both tacks. Gollito had still two chances to score high.
Fueled by adrenaline the sailors were waiting at the beach for the result, which got announced by speaker Roberto Hofmann. Steven was awarded the victory and the event title with a 3-2 decision from the judges.

 

Tonky winning one heat after the other – Pic: PWA/John Carter

 

Having sailed an incredible year of competitions, Van Broeckhoven has won three events out of six events on the world freestyle tour and earned himself the title of 2011 world freestyle champion. He had a bad start in the season with a knee injury at the first event in event, but could recover quick. Even if Kiri Thode wins in Sylt, and equals Van Broeckhoven on points, the Belgium sailor will take the win as he has defeated Thode the most times.

 

 

THE LADIES

In the women´s fleet we saw 3 heats on the final day. Venezuelan Yoli De Brent and Xenia Kessler were the first women to take to the battle arena, fighting for third place. The duo looked fairly evenly matched both landing clew first Spocks and Forward loops and Flakas. However De Brent was able to take the lead separating the pair with her switch moves, seeing her advance to face her teammate Laure Treboux.
Treboux was on fine form throughout the heat landing a fully planing Grubby under the judges’ noses, De Brendt fought back hard landing a Forward loop and a Flaka. It came down to the final minutes of the heat when Treboux upped the game landing a one handed clew first Spock, a one handed Flaka and a switch Flaka to secure her place in the final.

 

Just nine minutes separated Sarah-Quita Offringa from claiming her third event crown and her fourth world champion title. Offringa didn’t let the pressure affect her performance and she sailed an inspiring heat landing an incredible set of moves like a Kono, a Toad, a perfect Flaka, Spocks. Treboux upped her game, landing a Funnel and a Switch Kono, but she was unable to match the power and diversity of Sarah-Quita´s moves. Sarah-Quita Offringa was awarded the victory to the cheers of the crowds on the beach after an amazing season, where she was unbeaten on the water in the freestyle discipline.

Congratulations to all winners!!

 

RESULT PWA FUERTEVENTURA 2011

MEN

  1. Steven van Broeckhoven
  2. Gollito Estredo
  3. Kiri Thode

 

WOMEN
  1. Sarah-Quita Offringa (2011 world champion)
  2. Laure Treboux
  3. Yoli de Brendt
 
© continentseven.com, PWA 2011
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