Women’s : Delphine Cousin ends the season with a bang

Delphine Cousin (Starboard / Gun Sails) continued her superb form as she claimed an emphatic victory in Elimination 9 and it looked like she should score back-to-back bullets on the last day, but she dropped her final gybe when under pressure from Lena Erdil (Patrik / Point-7 / Mystic / Al360) to finish second. However, Cousin, still holds an almost perfect record with 7 victories from the 10 races completed and she finishes the season with a well deserved victory, which sees her crowned the PWA Women’s vice-world champion.

There was no pressure on Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins) entering the final day of the event with the world title already safe, but the Aruban gem still wanted to end the event on a high. For a while it looked as though she may miss out on the final winners’ final of the week as she dropped two gybes at the first and then third buoy. After the third mark Offringa found herself in second last, but somehow fought back to claim 4th place, before finishing 3rd, which sees Offringa finish the event in 2^nd place.

Lena Erdil (Patrik / Point-7 / Mystic / AL360) finished the event in style as she claimed her first bullet of the week after overtaking Cousin at the final mark. Erdil has performed consistently all week and her excellent form sees the Turkish beauty complete the both event and overall podiums.

Marion Mortefon (Patrik / Gun Sails) and Fulya Ünlü (Starboard / Severne) recorded identical results today with 4th and 5th place finishes in both races — meaning that Mortefon finishes 4th here New Caledonia and in the overall rankings, with Ünlü taking home 5th.

Men’s : Antoine Albeau celebrates world title No.23

Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) was made to sweat it out on the final day after a premature start in Heat 14, which saw 6 sailors disqualified — Taty Frans (Starboard / GA Sails / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins), Ross Williams (Tabou / GA Sails / Mystic), Antoine Questel (Starboard / GA Sails), Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne) and Cedric Bordes (Tabou / GA Sails) — before also jumping the gun in Heat 15. In the end Albeau finishes the event in 4th place, which was just enough to see AA collect an incredible 4th consecutive world title, which is his 23rd overall world crown.

Antoine Albeau said : “It feels super good, it was bit difficult with the points because I wasn’t really sure of the scenarios, but now it feels great to win one more world title.”

Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North) did everything in his power to deny Albeau the world title by winning his second event of the year, but it wasn’t quite enough with both Frenchman finishing the season on 10,269 points, but Albeau wins the title on count back having beaten Mortefon more times this season - recording a better result at 4 out of the 6 events in 2015.

With 6 sailors disqualified from the second semifinal the last winners’ final of the week saw just 6 sailors battling it out to take the last victory of the year as local boy Charles Perret (Fanatic / North) lined up against Pierre Mortefon, Ben Van der Steen (Tabou / GA Sails), Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Point-7), Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Loft Sails / Mystic) and Matteo Iachino (Fanatic / North). Van der Steen made the best start to the Heat 16 and the flying Dutchman led from start to finish to end the season with a bang. Mortefon recovered from a dropped gybe to claim 2^nd ahead of Cousin, who recorded his best result of the week, Iachino, Costa Hoevel and Perret.

Meanwhile, Taty Frans, completed Elimination 9 in 8th place, which secures the Bonairean a hugely deserved first podium finish on the PWA Slalom World Tour as he finishes the season off with an excellent 2^nd place in Noumea.

Elsewhere Cyril Moussilmani pipped Albeau to the final place on the event podium by just 0.1 of a point, which is the Frenchman’s best result of the season.