EXCITEMENT TILL THE END!

Matteo Iachino went into the final PWA slalom event of the year in loading position but tied in points with his main rival of the year, Pierre Mortefon. The stage was set for an epic battle between the two in some of the best slalom conditions you can find.

Photos by John Carter/PWA

After 11 eliminations in near perfect conditions, it came down to the very last final of the event to decide the event victory and the overall world championship at the same time.

On this occasion, unfortunately, Matteo drew the shortest straw in the tricky and light winds of the final elimination to finish behind his rival and thus having to settle with the Vice World Champion title.

A few days prior, it all looked more positive as Matteo won three eliminations in a row on day 4 of the event. But after a tough few days which involved sailing into a sea snake, the situation looked more difficult. He had to finish 3 places ahead of Pierre in the last final of the event. The tricky, light winds were not in Matteo’s favor this time and he, unfortunately, had to settle with the second position.

This goes to show the consistency of Matteo’s performance keeping himself in the game at all times, and a testament to the performance of our Mach2 slalom sails. With the game being so tight, the result could easily have swung to both sides.

Looking down the result list we also find a well-performing Tristan Algret in 13th place. Although a 13th place isn’t what he had hoped for, he was battling for the top positions the whole week before being involved in a crash on the start line on the last day taking him out of the game. Tristan finishes this year’s world ranking in 8th place.

Local boy and young gun Damien Cervera was truly the hero of this final event qualifying for more finals than ever in his whole career. Making 5 finals out of 11 is an impressive achievement for our young rider who now lives and studies in France. Damien finished the event in 16th place.

This concludes the 2019 PWA slalom world tour as everyone now looks at a winter break and preparations for the upcoming season.
The next time we’ll see our riders in action will be on our new Mach3 racing sails!