Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup 2024 - Slalom

Men’s & Women’s Slalom World Titles Set to be Decided Over Next 5 Days in Japan - Who Needs What to Win?

After a tough season it all boils down to the 2023 Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup, which is set to decide the Men’s and Women’s Slalom world champions over the next 5 days with the event running between 10th-14th November.

Flat stick slalom last time out in Japan

Tsukuihama Beach, Yokosuka City, is situated approximately 80km southwest of Japan’s capital Tokyo. Yokosuka blends city life with the sea, while also being a Naval Port. Yokosuka occupies most of the Miura Peninsula and is bordered by the mouth of Tokyo Bay to the east and Sagami Bay on the west, which provides a beautiful backdrop. As Tsukuihama Beach is almost completely protected it can provide great flat water racing conditions. As well as its maritime connections Yokosuka is also famous for it’s locally grown produce and there is even a tourist farm where you can pick your own strawberries, sweet potatoes or tangerines depending on the time of year.

Women’s

A Two Horse Race?

Blanca Alabau (Starboard / Severne Sails) comes into Japan in search of securing a maiden Slalom world title and the Spaniard holds a healthy advantage at the top of the rankings. Alabau has enjoyed a fine season to date - finishing on the podium in each of the opening three events, including a first event win in Pozo in July earlier this year - which gives her a 200 point cushion over reigning world champion - Marion Mortefon (Duotone / Duotone Sails), heading into the decider.

Blanca Alabau leading the pack last year in Japan

With this being the Women’s fourth event - that means that a discard will come into play, so Alabau will finish on a minimum of 30,600 points no matter what happens here, which means Marion Mortefon or Justine Lemeteyer (FMX Racing / S2Maui / LOKEFOIL) must win the event to have any chance of snatching the title.

World Title Race Connotations

- In the event that there are less than 4 eliminations completed, Blanca Alabau will become Slalom world champion for the first time as a win with 3 or less eliminations is only worth 10,000 points.

- In the event that there are at least 4 eliminations - a top two finish would guarantee Alabau a maiden world title.

- In the event of at least 4 eliminations being completed - Marion Mortefon or Justine Lemeteyer must win the event and hope that Alabau finishes third or worse. In this instance, whoever out of Mortefon and Lemeteyer, would also finish the season on 30,600 points and the title would be decided on countback.

Justine Lemeteyer

Meanwhile, Helle Oppedal (Starboard / Severne Sails), who finished 4th overall in 2022, is set to make her first appearance of the season, while home hopes will be pinned on the likes of Fujiko Onishi (Future Fly / Point-7), Mio Anayama (FMX Racing / S2Maui), Ayako Suzuki (Tabou / GA Sails) and Yuki Sunaga (Loftsails).

Mio Anayama heads out

Men’s

Winner Takes All?

With just 100 points separating first to fourth in the Men’s Slalom it looks like the winner of this year’s world title will be whoever win’s the decider here in Japan. Defending world champion - Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) - holds the narrowest of leads at the top of the pack coming into Japan over Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails), who is looking to earn his first world title since 2016, having hit the crossbar so many times since then. Meanwhile, The top two will have no margin for error with both Pierre Mortefon (Duotone / Duotone Sails / Phantom Foils) and Johan Søe (FMX Racing / Point-7 / F4 Foils) breathing firmly down their necks and have an excellent shot at the title.

Maciek Rutkowski is looking to win back-to-back world titles

In With a Chance

Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Severne Sails) won the last event in Sylt, which gives him an outside shot of winning a first Slalom world title. However, the Bonairean currently trails Rutkowski and Iachino by 300 points, so in order to claim the title he would need to win the event, whilst hoping results elsewhere go his way. In simple terms; Rutkowski and Iachino must finish 4th or worse, while Mortefon and Søe must also finish 3rd or worse, while Vrieswijk must win the event.

Amado Vrieswijk

Just as in the women’s division, there are plenty of sailors who will be looking to end the season on a high in Japan, such as; Michele Becker (Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils), Bruno Martini (JP / NeilPryde), Nicolas Prien (JP / NeilPryde) and Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils), who complete the top 10 heading into Japan.

Elsewhere, Will McMillan (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) is set to make his first appearance since winning the opening event in Italy, while defending event champion - Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde) - will be absent from proceedings with the Croat and his girlfriend expecting their first baby - everyone from the PWA wishes you both well!

Will McMillan

Looking Ahead

The forecast for the opening couple of days suggests that we will see a windy start to the event with moderate to strong south-southwest winds currently predicted for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully once registration is completed we will see the first races of the event completed during the afternoon.

Forecast for the opening couple of days.

Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com over the next 5 days to see how the world titles battles turn out as you’ll be able to follow the action as it happens via the PWA live stream with Ben Proffitt to guide you through the best of the action.

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Japan — including live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Also if you don’t already, follow us on our Social Media Channels:

- Facebook: @PWAWorldTourWindsurfing

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Registered, Rigged & Ready after a slow and rainy start to proceedings

The opening day of the 2023 Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup saw a relatively quiet start to proceedings with the sailors registering for the contest during the morning followed by the official opening ceremony at 12:30pm.

Skippers' meeting

There was a glimmer of hope that the afternoon would produce some racing with a spike in the wind on the forecast, and at around 3pm the wind did begin to pick up, which led to the sailors being called to the water with 5-11 knots on offer. However, a couple of starts in Heat 1 of the Men’s Slalom saw two sailors eliminated for premature starts, while shortly afterwards the wind dropped back and with the light beginning to fade the sailors were released just before 4:15pm.

Matteo Iachino warms up

The forecast for tomorrow looks very promising with 21-31 knot north-northeast winds currently predicted for the morning, so with this in mind the skippers’ meeting has been called for 7:30am (GMT+9) with the action commencing from 8am onwards.

Forecast for the weekend

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Japan — including live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Also if you don’t already, follow us on our Social Media Channels:

- Facebook: @PWAWorldTourWindsurfing

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A day of twists and turns sees both the Men’s and Women’s world title races remain delicately poised after winds ranging from over 30 knots to 7 knots provide the ultimate test

The forecast for the second day of the 2023 Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup certainly didn’t disappoint with 4 eliminations a piece being completed in the Men’s and Women’s fleets. Today proved to be a true test with treacherously choppy waters and winds in excess of 30 knots greeting the competitors first thing in the morning, before the wind slowly dropped throughout the day to a more marginal 7-15 knots. However, the level of drama didn’t decrease with the wind, with some significant changes late in the day, which may yet prove pivotal in the races for the respective world titles.

Racing on day two in Japan

Women’s

With Justine Lemeteyer (FMX Racing / S2Maui) heading up the event rankings on countback over Blanca Alabau (Starboard / Severne Sails) at the end of the first day of racing, that leaves the world title finely balanced. As things stand, Alabau leads the race for the world title on 30,700 points, while Lemeteyer closes to within just 100 points after recording a bullet, two seconds and a 6th - which she discards. Alabau enjoyed an extremely solid day - not finishing outside the top three once - with results of one bullet, two seconds and third, which keeps her in control, for now at least.

Blanca Alabau

However, with Lina Eržen (Starboard / Severne Sails), who you may be more familiar with from the Freestyle world or iQFoil, not just making her debut on the PWA Slalom World Tour, but also making a significant impact, which saw the 18-year-old claim back-to-back bullets in Eliminations 3 and 4, she could still yet play a major role in determining the outcome of the world title race.

The young Slovenian is just 1.7 points off the lead, so if she was to leapfrog Alabau into second place that would see Lemeteyer move into the world title race lead - assuming Lemeteyer continues to lead the event. However, if Eržen was to jump to the top of the event rankings, that would then swing the world title race back in the favour of Alabau, so it’s safe to say that there could still be plenty of twists and turns to come in the title race yet.

Lina Eržen makes an instant impact

Eržen, meanwhile, looked extremely impressive and things could have been even better for her, but she dropped her final gybe when leading Elimination 2. If she continues the kind of form she showed today then not only could she play a major role in deciding the world title, but she could also mount a serious challenge for the event title.

Elsewhere, Helle Oppedal (Starboard / Severne Sails) made a consistent return to the World Tour with two thirds and two fourths respectively, to be ranked 4th in the overnight rankings, while Marion Mortefon (Duotone / Duotone Sails) didn’t make the start she would’ve wanted after crashing when leading the opening semifinal, which saw her miss out on the first final. The reigning world champion must win the event to have any shot at defending her world title, and while that is certainly not out of the question, she will need to click into top gear quickly if she is to reduce the 7.3 point deficit she is currently posed with.

Marion Mortefon

Sana Saeki (JP / NeilPryde) and Fujiko Onishi (Future Fly / Point-7) are currently the top two Japanese sailors - ranked 6th and 7th respectively.

Men’s

At the close of play, Johan Søe (FMX Racing / Point-7 / F4 Foils) leads both the event ranking and the battle for the world title, but that doesn’t quite tell the full story. The 20-year-old made a spectacular start to the event by claiming an excellent second in the opener before powering to back-to-back bullets to take a stranglehold over the event. At this stage, Søe looked to be in total control and in almost unstoppable form.

However, that’s when things took a potentially decisive twist as the young Dane dropped off the foil after the opening gybe in the last quarterfinal of Elimination 4 - and with no cancellation flag coming to his rescue, a quarterfinal exit soon beckoned. That in itself doesn’t represent a problem as Søe simply discards that result to currently sit on 3.4 points at the top of the rankings with a healthy 5.6 point advantage. However, it does greatly reduce his margin for error as another poor result could see him plummet down the rankings, while throwing the world title race wide open, and ending his own.

Johan Søe leads the pack

The man who stands to gain the most at the moment is Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails) with the Italian currently tied with Søe on 40,500 points, so any change in the event ranking has huge implications. The 2016 world champion was the only sailor to qualify for every winners’ final today - recording a second, third and a fourth - while he discards a 7th, which puts him in quite a powerful position as he can potentially try and risk more in the next race to really apply the pressure at the top of the rankings. Even ‘just’ qualifying for another winners’ final would give Iachino tremendous breathing room compared to Søe - at least until 7 Eliminations are completed as the second discard would then come into play.

Matteo Iachino

As things stand - Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Severne Sails) - would jump up into 3rd place in the overall world rankings. The Bonairean began the event with a statement of intent as he struck first blood by winning the opening elimination, but he then had a couple of racing incidents when well placed in Eliminations 2 and 4, which could potentially cost him dearly. Vrieswijk did well to limit the damage after missing out on the winners’ final of the last elimination, but must be gutted that he couldn’t totally capitalise on Søe’s unexpected early exit.

Amado Vrieswijk

Fellow world title candidate - Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails) experienced a day he’d probably rather forget with the defending world champion slipping from 1st to 4th in the overall rankings - as things stand. The Pole bounced back brilliantly after missing the opening winners’ final by securing second place, but was then extremely unlucky to hit a submerged object in the run up area in the semifinals of Elimination 3, which meant he not only missed the start of the heat, but also damaged a foil and cut his arm. Rutkowski ends the day ranked 6th in the event rankings and would need other results to fall firmly in his favour if he is to force himself back into world title race contention. Stranger things have happened, so never say never.

Maciek Rutkowski

Bruno Martini (JP / NeilPryde) finishes the day ranked fourth, but will probably be frustrated the he inadvertently sailed the wrong quarterfinal - sailing Heat 7 instead of 8, which even more annoyingly for him he won, but was later disqualified for. That means that he has a 49 point discard looming over his head, much like Søe. Meanwhile, fellow countryman - Daniele Benedetti (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails / F4 Foils) - enjoyed arguably his best day to date on the World Tour - currently ranked 5th after qualifying for 3 winners’ finals out of 4.

Bruno Martini together with Daniele Bendetti

Will McMillan (Starboard / Challenger Sails / Patrik Foils) was making his first appearance since winning the opening event of the year in Lake Garda and the 17-year-old experienced a turbulent day. McMillan missed the opening race after having issues fitting his foil, while in Elimination 2 he crashed on the entry to the first mark, which left Benedetti with nowhere to go. Fortunately, McMillan flew clear of his gear, while both he and Benedetti suffered damaged equipment, but not to themselves . Without having enough time to find a new foil, McMillan missed out again in Elimination 3, but then came storming back in Elimination 4. Originally he thought he had been eliminated in the quarterfinals, but that was the heat Bruno Martini incorrectly sailed, so he understandably packed up for the day, only to be reinstated in 4th place. Cue a mad dash of rigging etc and the young Thai soon showed the form he demonstrated in Garda - powering to the front of the pack in both the semifinals and finals to claim a decisive bullet.

Will McMillan

Elsewhere, Cedric Bordes (Severne / Severne Sails) enjoyed his best day for a long time - and without doubt his best day ever on the foil. The Frenchman clicked in to top gear today with perfectly timed starts and an excellent top speed making him a force to be reckoned with, which resulted in him finishing third in the last two races to jump into the event top 10 - 7th.

Cedric Bordes

The current event top 10 is completed by - Alexis Mathis (Tabou / GA Sails), Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Patrik / Patrik Sails) and Nico Prien (JP / NeilPryde).

Unfortunately, it looks as though Pierre Mortefon’s (Duotone / Duotone / Phantom Foils) world title challenge for this year has more than likely to come an end for the with the 2019 world champion currently ranked 12th for the event.

Pierre Mortefon

Just like last year here in Yokosuka, the best wind is seemingly more often in the morning and that’s how the forecast looks again for Sunday with moderate northeasterly winds being predicted until about 1pm local time. With this in mind the sailors will meet again at 8am (GMT-9) tomorrow with the action commencing from 8:30am onwards.

Forecast for Sunday & Monday

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Japan — including live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Also if you don’t already, follow us on our Social Media Channels:

- Facebook: @PWAWorldTourWindsurfing

- Instagram: @pwaworldtour

- Twitter: @pwaworldtour

- YouTube: @pwaworldtour

Current Event Ranking 2023 Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup - Women’s Slalom

*After 4 Eliminations

1st Justine Lemeteyer (FRA | FMX Racing / S2Maui)

2nd Blanca Alabau (ESP | Starboard / Severne Sails)

3rd Lina Eržen (SLO | Starboard / Severne Sails)

4th Helle Oppedal (NOR | Starboard / Severne Sails)

5th Marion Mortefon (FRA | Duotone / Duotone Sails)

Current Event Ranking 2023 Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup - Women’s Slalom

*After 4 Eliminations

1st Johan Søe (DEN | FMX Racing / Point-7 / F4 Foils)

2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)

3rd Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Severne Sails)

4th Bruno Martini (ITA | JP / NeilPryde)

5th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails / F4 Foils)

6th Maciek Rutkowski (POL | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails)

7th Cedric Bordes (FRA | Severne / Severne Sails)

8th Alexis Mathis (FRA | Tabou / GA Sails)

9th Alexandre Cousin (FRA | Patrik / Patrik Sails / Patrik Foils)

10th Nico Prien (GER | JP / NeilPryde)