After an epic final of the Surf-Freestyle events which saw the French Flora Artzner and Malo Guénolé win the victory of the event, but also the world title for the latter alongside Paula Novotna, it was time for the riders to compete in the Surf-Slalom events! With some complicated mathematical scenarios with the game of dicards, there was suspense until the end to know who would win the Taiba event and who would be World Champions!
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
For women as for men, everything everything could still be played for the world title. If Titouan Galea was at the top of the world rankings, Francesco Capuzzo, Camille Bouyer and Mathis Ghio still had a chance to dethrone him. Same pattern on the women’s side, where Flora Artzner has kept the lead all season, but where Nia Suardiaz and Paula Novotna still had a chance of winning the title. (Discover the full scenarios in one of our latest articles)
It was on a somewhat unusual slalom course, with a large tactical upwind and a pumping zone in the waves, that the 41 Men and 14 Women competed over several races all day long on Day 4 and 5. The course was slightly changed in the second part of the last day for an finish oriented towards the beach.
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
During the two days the men smashed through four full elimination battles, each consisting of four heats, two semi-finals and then a final. The finishers in the top five in each heat would advance on their way to the final. On Day 4, Titouan Galea was unbeatable : outwitting his competitors on the upwind legs, he then glided easily through the course to win both finals of the day. For the F-One rider to be world champion, he had to finish the competition ahead of Francesco Cappuzzo. But the latter was not far away, especially by finishing second in the second heat! Everything could still change on this Day 5, and there is the drama: Titouan was knocked out in the semi-finals of heat 3! This benefited Cappuzzo to bring his score closer by finishing second again, while Mahis Ghio won his first elimination final. So the world title and all came down to the 4th and last round.
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
On elimination 4, Galea was back in the final, and even if Cappuzzo was closest to him, he needed to finish four positions higher than Galea to claim the title. For this last race on the men’s side, Mathis Ghio, Camille Bouyer and Alessandri Tomasi got off to a great start and made a great upwind run, leaving Galea and Cappuzzo to fight for 4th and 5th place. Mathis Ghio, very fit and fast on this last day, won his second final, Tomassi took second, Bouyer third and, crucially, Titouan crossed the line in fourth ahead of Cappuzzo and that was it! Titouan Galea is the 2022 GWA Surf-Slalom World Champion! The ranking then took a bit to be sure not to make mistakes between discards and claims, but Mathis Ghio won the Taiba event, followed by Titouan Galea and Francesco Cappuzzo. And on the World Championships side, Titouan is on the top of the World, while Francesco Cappuzzo took second, and Camille Bouyer third. Note however that Camille is the only one to be on the two GWA world podiums, 3rd in Surf-Slalom and 3rd in Surf-Freestyle! Huge Camille! Well done!
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
On the women’s side, Nia Suardiaz was in rocket mode on the first day, winning 6 races… out of 6! But all eyes were on the number 1 in the rankings before Taiba: Flora Artzner. Finishing the heats between 2nd and 7th place, she finished Day 4 at the 3rd place in the Taiba ranking, behind Novotna and Suardiaz. If she keeps this ranking, she should be crowned Surf-Slalom World Champion! But everything could still change on Day 5, since 5 other rounds were planned. Nia Suardiaz was still in good shape, winning two more heats, but giving her 1st place twice to Paula Novotna and once to Flora Artzner. In the final race, Flora Artzner crossed the line in fourth, giving her third position overall here in Brazil and first at the end of the season. Nia Suardiaz dominantly won the event, followed by Paula Novotna and Flora Artzner, but Flora is the 2022 GWA Wingfoil Surf-Slalom World Champion! We should note that Flora, Paula and Nia share the places of the two world podiums of the GWA 2022, just by exchanging places: Flora Artzner first, Nia Suardiaz second and Paula Novotna third in Surf-Slalom, while in Surf-Freestyle Paula finished World Champion, followed by Nia Suardiaz and then Flora Artzner! Congrats girls! Special mention to Orane Ceris and Kylie Belloeuvre who also both finished respectively 4th and 5th in the two world rankings!
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
In the end, of the four 2022 World Champion titles awarded by the GWA, 3 were won by French people, bravo! The South American Surf-Slalom Championships also ran over on these last two days of the GWA Taiba and you can find the results below. And that is it! The GWA Wingfoil World Tour is over for this year, but will resume very soon, in March, in New Zealand. The year 2023 promises to be very exciting with two World Tours endorsed by the World Sailing.
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
1 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2 Paula Novotna (CZE)
3 Flora Artzner (FRA)
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
1 Mathis Ghio (FRA)
2 Titouan Galea (FRA)
3 Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
1 Flora Artzner (FRA)
2 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
3 Paula Novotna (CZE)
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
1 Titouan Galea (FRA)
2 Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
3 Camille Bouyer (FRA)
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
Photo: @romantsovaphoto
Congrats to all the competitors who participated in this last World Cup in Taiba and to all who took part in the GWA World Tour, and well done to the GWA for organizing such events!
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