IFCA Slalom World Championships 2019 – the top favorites in the interview.
With hope to get the first races in, the second day of the IFCA Slalom World Championships on Sylt started quite promising with wind speeds of up to 8 to 15 Knots. However, the wind dropped quickly, so unfortunately no official competitions were possible. Time to take a closer look at the two top favorites of the event, Enrico Marotti (CRO-401) from Croatia and Vincent Langer (GER-1) from Kiel:
MVWC: Enrico, you are the reigning IFCA Slalom World Champion, your goal for this event is sure to defend this title, right?
Enrico M: “To be honest, defending the title is not my main goal. I’m here to compete with the other riders and, of course, to make the most of it. I just hope that we have good conditions and a lot of action here and I’m looking forward to the races. Of
course I do my best, but defending the title is not my priority.”
MVWC: Vincent, you too have already collected some IFCA Slalom titles (Slalom World Champion 2015 and 2016) and you are the current IFCA Slalom European Champion, what are your goals here on Sylt?
Vincent: “I just want to show a good performance and do my best. Of course, it is always great to win an event. But the competition here is also very tough. With Enrico (Marotti), Maciek (Rutkowski, POL-23), Nico (Prien, GER-7), Gunnar (Asmussen, GER-2) and Sebastian (Kördel, GER-220) I have a lot of strong opponents. All of them have the chance to win here. Considering this it will be interesting to see who will finish on the podium.”
MVWC: How did you prepare for the season?
Enrico: “I trained hard in the winter and spent two months on Maui at the beginning of the year. I also participated in the PWA World Tour stops in France and Japan. I feel very well prepared.”
Vincent: “I also spent a lot of time training. I was on Tenerife and then on Sardinia and in Soma Bay. I am fit and perfectly prepared. I know Sylt and the area here also very well and I arrived a few days earlier to get ready for the event.”
MVWC: Can you already look back on some successes in this fresh season or is the IFCA Slalom World Championships your first event of the year?
Vincent: “For me, the Slalom World Championships is the second event of the season. I was already at the first PWA World tour stop in France, but unfortunately I had an over-early in the second round which put me far back in the ranking. That should not happen here.”
Enrico: “I’ve been to PWA World tour events in France and Japan, but so far not really successful. That’s why I want to do my best here and I’m really looking forward to the competitions.”
Tomorrow, the third day of the event, the participants of the IFCA Slalom World Championships should finally have a real chance to complete the first slalom eliminations. The wind forecasts promise optimal conditions for slalom.
Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled for 10:00am
By Katja Bootz | Courtesy of Choppy Water GmbH - All Images by
Nici Riederer www.lightnic.de
