Antoine Albeau (FRA, Starboard) and Karin Jaggi (SUI, F2, North) are the speed windsurfing world champions 2008, after 7 rounds of speedsailing in challenging conditions.
The event started with challenging conditions as the wind was pretty light in correlation to the deep angle of the course. The top speeds came close to 40 knots, with a close battle between Albeau and Diethelm. With improving wind speeds Dunkerbeck came closer, but was never able to really challenge the top duo. The places behind were hardly fought for between Maynard and the Moussilmani brothers, Slalom specialists Dan Ellis (GBR, Fanatic) and Peter Volwater (F2, North) as well as living legend Anders Bringdal (SWE) completing the top 10.
With higher wind speeds and the high tide in the afternoon the top speeds improved over the curse of the week, with Antoine Albeau again setting the top speed of the event with 40.54 knots average over the 500m speedcourse.
The womens competition was ever more thrilling, with a tie in points after 4 races between Karin Jaggi and Valerie Ghibaudo. Karin was then able to take advantage of the harder conditions towards the end of the competition, and closely snatched the victory. The final place on the podium was open for a long time, with Zara Davis (GBR) retiring after round 6 it became close between Marion Raisi and Emanuelle Duby (FRA), with the better end for Marion.
Australia’s Chris Lockwood (Carbon Art, KA Sails) came in at 12th,
and recorded a speed of 38.35knots
Daily reports and pictures free of charge are available
at www.speedworldcup.com. Also see Results PDF
