| Antxon Otaegui shines in the freestyle challenge of PWA Sylt 2008 |
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| News - Windsurfing |
| Wednesday, 01 October 2008 08:52 |
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With the weather gods seemingly playing roulette with Sylt’s conditions, the race committee had a tough call to make when deciding which of the three disciplines would brave the ever changing North Sea on competition’s fourth day. The quarter finals saw the lighter sailors reign supreme, with both Marcilio Browne (Mistral, Gaastra) and Ricardo Campello (JP, NeilPryde, MFC) exiting the elimination at the hands of their lighter rivals, Otaegui and Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra). This paved the way for a Tonky Frans (F2, Gaastra) versus Otaegui and Thode versus Jose Estredo semi final. A huge shaka and near perfect kono from Frans still weren’t enough to topple Otaegui, who was pushing the level up with each heat he sailed. His semi final routine included a towering air chachoo off a chunky breaker, a clear crowd pleaser. Joining Otaegui in the final was Estredo, who toppled Thode with the help of a devastating pushloop and a varied mix of switch and regular stance trickery. Moving into the losers final, Frans fell victim to his overzealous approach, which saw him unable to resist the urge to throw massive forward loops off the biggest and best waves the heat had to offer. Despite treating the crowd to a hugely popular aerial display, Thode stole the heat thanks to his more savvy approach. Crunch time came when seasoned finalist Estredo dueled with underdog Otaegui in the elimination decider. Both sailors kicked off with a healthy quota of moves, but unpredictably, as the wind dropped it was Otaegui that made the most of the marginal conditions. The Lanzarote local bided his time, waiting for the biggest swells to execute smooth sliding moves, while Estredo wallowed the last two minutes of the heat off the plane. In a landslide judging decision, Otaegui claimed the first single elimination as his, leaving Estredo to contemplate his actions in second.
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