Thierry Bielak was holding the windsurfers 500m record from 1991-2004.
| Speed:World:Cup France: Day 3 |
|
|
|
| Thursday, 03 April 2008 | |
|
What an incredible day: 60 knots of wind, amazing speeds, upside-down timing caravan. We have rarely seen such a windy race day during competition - an experience that not many can share. Alexandre Caizergues and Charlotte Consorti, both from France, are still dominating the PKRA Speed:World:Cup in Port St. Louis.
The day started calm, not very windy, and the skippersmeeting was scheduled for 9:30, due to the official function yesterday evening. Just in time for the start at 11:00 hours the wind picked up, and there was more to come. Already the first speeds showed the potential of Plage Napoleon, which has now proven to be one of the fastest natural speedsailing spots in the world. Alex Caizergues set the mark of the day with a stunning 43.09 knots run, Sebastien Cattelan, Rolf van der Vlugt and Christophe Prin-Guenon hit this magical mark as well. In up to 50 knots of wind not many riders made the way up to the starting mark, but for those competing it was a magical experience. Sjoukje Bredenkamp was leading the ladies competition for a long time, but only a few minutes before the end of the leg Charlotte Consorti snatched victory with respectable 34.5 knots. After a longer break the second leg of the day was started at 14:30. The wind gusted 60 knots in the meantime, flying water and sand everywhere. The speeds were not so impressive as in the first leg, as the water was really rough now and most runs ended up in bad crashes. Everything went well so far for dominating Alexandre Caizergues, until the timing caravan fell over in a heavy gust and the race had to be stopped for a few minutes. After reopening the course, Rolf van der Vlugt set the run of this leg with a personal best speed of 42.35 knots, Charlotte Consorti directly behind him with 36.39 knots, taking the lead in the womens top speed ranking. In the overall ranking, Alexandre Caizergues is clearly in the lead with a perfect score of 3.5 points after 7 legs and 2 discards, followed by dutch Rolf van der Vlugt and Sebastien Cattelan. Same picture at the womens side, perfect score for Charlotte Consorti, Sjouke Bredenkamp (RSA) and Katja Roose (NED) clearly behind. The Speed:World:Cup contiunes until Sunday 6th, the event is broadcasted live on the internet via www.speedworldcup.com Full Results can be found in the events section, and pictures in the press lounge. |
