The Slalom discipline in Fuerteventura has always been one of the highlights of the PWA and World Sailing year. 2024 marked a new level of excitement with 5 intensely exciting days featuring 2 different slalom disciplines, Slalom X on fin only, and Foil Slalom.
The racing was nothing short of spectacular and the video coverage of the event was incredible. If you didn't see it, please head over to pwaworldtour.com and you will have hours of viewing pleasure that words could never hope to describe.
Slalom X Women
Sarah Quita, not content with just winning her 23rd world title when another one was on the line, set out like a woman on a mission. She showed signs of dominance in Gran Canaria but this time in Fuerte, she really took it to a new level, winning 9 out of 10 races in emphatic fashion.
She ended up discarding a 2nd and a 1st for an incredible 1st ever Slalom X World title, having won both stops on this year’s PWA Slalom X circuit. Congratulations Sarah Quita. We are so proud of you and happy for you.
Bobbi-Lynn also put on a great performance and finished in 8th place. Improving her technique and performance at every event.
Slalom X Men
Being the final Slalom X event of the year, nobody was holding back and there was excitement, overtaking, undertaking and crashing going on from start to finish. It was an immensely exciting event to watch and Maciek, Bruno and Nico all managed to finish in the top 10, 5th, 7th and 10th respectively.
Maciek was consistently flying and sailed many excellent races but was sadly on the receiving end of some unlucky mishaps throughout the event. Still, he kept his calm and managed to make 4 out of 6 winners finals, deservedly winning the last elimination of the event to put some icing on the cake.
Bruno consistently looked like one of the fastest sailors on the course but had some crazy explosions at close to 40 knots which restricted his ability to place higher in the event, still 7th place was an extremely impressive result in this action packed event. He also scored another Slalom X bullet in the winners final of elimination 5.
Nico Prien took the final spot in the top 10. Also sailing consistently but having some bad luck in the semi finals. He made 3 winners finals and was almost always in the top 2 of the losers finals, so he should be very happy with his performance.
Foil Slalom Men
As if the Slalom X hadn't been exciting enough, the level of skill and courage shown by the slalom racers on their foils in Fuerte was off the hook. The close-quarters foil racing lead to many insane crashes but had viewers and competitors alike on the edge of their seats from start to finish.
Again our team performed amazingly. Enrico came 3rd, Maciek 8th, Nico 11th
Enrico sailed exceptionally well after a tough mental start to the event with a quarter-final loss in the first round and incredibly managed to make all of the winners finals after that first first race. He ended the event in 3rd place but even having made all those finals, he would feel that he was still quite unlucky not to be even more in contention for the top spot as he had 3 very unlucky mishaps, crashing on the first reach while winning elimination 4, crashing on the start-line in the winners final of elimination 5 and then crashing in the winners final of the last elimination, number 10. He showed blistering pace and excellent racing, finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 3 eliminations where he was able to make it round the course in one piece, especially impressive after recently coming back from an injury which kept him from competing in Gran Canaria. We are really happy for you, Enrico! You fought like a champion and hope that you can now complete your recovery and continue to fight for the rest of the year!
Maciek also suffered from multiple mishaps, many of which were from circumstances out of his control, but managed to keep his cool and pull back from a bad start to make the last 4 winners finals and come back to 8th place. Perhaps not the result he would have liked, but he showed true mettle in his resolve to never give up and provided us with some intense action to watch along the way!
Nico just missed out on the top 10 finish this time but he showed many signs of excellence, making 3 winners finals, also suffering from some unfortunate mishaps due to the intense nature of foil racing.
It truly was one of the most exciting events we have ever seen though, so thank you team for putting on an amazing performance.
Foil Slalom Women
Bobbi-Lynn showed more signs of what is to come, finishing in 7th place at only 15 years of age. Great work Bobbi Lynn!!
