Racing season is fully ON! The Black Team has been splitting left and right to bring the AC-1 Zero14 on the podiums. We had Vincent Langer winning the German events and the European Ifca slalom. Him, with Pascal Toselli, both Top 5 at the IFCA Slalom Worlds in early May. Later the action moved to the long distances, where Andrea Cucchi has won the Defi Wind infront of 999 competitors and Pascal Toselli, always in France, another interesting long distance called the Transjai. Only one event has taken place for the PWA Slalom, where Alberto Menegatti won the first elimination of the year, but later still suffering from his injury, and therefore, lacking from training, finished anyway top 10 in Costa Brava. The young Black Team riders, Maciek Rutkowski and Jordy Vonk, had a great top 20 results by entering finals, which makes all hopes possible for great results in the coming events.
This last weekend there were 3 events taking place. The first PWA Freestyle in Bonaire, the IFCA Youth and Masters in Rosas, and one of the classic challenges, the ‘One Hour Classic’.
2 Vice world titles! The Youth and Master Ifca Slalom World championships for the under 21 or over 35, took place in Rosas, Costa Brava. 5 days and lots of competitors from many different countries. Our Black Team was composed from the Turkish Black Team with Poyraz Akay for the youth division, and in the masters Bora Kozanoglu and Spanish champion Fernando Martinez del Cerro. The boys were on fire, but a bit unlucky in the master division. Bora finishing second but same points as the first, and Fernando just one place behind the podium, where in the last day he caught a plastic bag and did not allow him to manage to get into final.
Poyraz Akai in the youth did a great constant top 3 results, but were not enough to win the event. He finished second comfortably.
Overall a great result as to have 2 guys on both podium in the IFCA worlds and including 2 riders in top 5 in the master division! 2 x vice world champion titles in the 2 divisions, make us proud.
Bora Kozanoglu ‘The event was great. Nice weather in Spain with plenty of thermic wind but just for 2 days. It would be a much nicer event if my caddy could have put the right board in my board bag:) he put the 117 75cm wide instead of the 80cm one:)), and i had to race in very light wind with my 8.6 on it. There were a lot competitors from 13 countries it was challenging for top 5 places. I used my 8.6 AC1. I’m 91 kg and the sail has a lot power. I didn’t have any underpowered problems, I think the sail covered the lack of power that my board had. I don’t really think I would need a 9.3. One of my finals that I won was cancelled and that was a pity. If we had one more race probably I would win because, Gunnar and I had more speed than Andrea ..anyway it was great excitement. My congrats go to both Gunnar Rasmussen and Andrea Rosati for their performance and results. My next event is the Turkish league that will start at Datca, south of Turkey.
Poyraz Akay
Jumping down to Lake Garda, this weekend a historical race took the show on the water. The One hour Classic: over 30 years of editions. A coast to coast race where for one hour you have to jibe 2 marks 2.5 km apart from each other. Record holder is our AC1zero13 with Alberto Menegatti where he was able to make 9laps, or better 18sides. This year great stars like Antoine Albeau, Andy Laufer and Finian Maynard, were present at the event, plus another 90 riders from different countries. Andrea Cucchi went close to the win, but after 40 minutes of lead, he gave his place up to Antoine Albeau. We need to let our Black Team manager more on the water, and less in the office so that he does not tire out after 40 minutes! The record was not beaten, but the race was fully successful!
Andrea Cucchi
Check out the live tracker of the one hour classic at this link.
More racing coming up soon with the PWA in Turkmenistan and a long distance in Tahiti.
