The first two days the Milos Beach Lefkada Vassiliki Festival are sailed in the bay of Vassiliki. The wind kicked in at 4 pm and blew just long enough

From 9 - 10.30 race director Tom Hartmann registered 23 riders. As on every first official appointment on an event the expectations for the upcoming and the memories of the past event were the matter of conversation. Nicolas Akgazciyan´s (Starboard/Gun Sails) “doppio forward“ from the Red Bull ramp session brought him a reward of 1.000€, Dominik Schönthal (Fanatic/North Sails) injured himself driving a scooter and everybody was asking if Steven van Broeckhoven (F2/Gaastra), after his 2nd place in Sardinia 3rd double elmination, now steps down from the top of the podium.

Straight after the registration riders and organisation crew were introduced to the mayor of Vassiliki in front of the town hall. Riders were given roses and a bunch of Greek school kids sang a local song. It was an emotional and warm welcome on the island of Lefkas. The mayor also found his way to beach, taking a look at the freestyle action and talking to the EFPT riders. Everybody was pretty surprised when he started to talk to Niklas Strahlen (RRD/Simmer Style) in Swedish. The mayor, together with good looking, mostly English, crowd could see the green flag for the first heat going up at 4pm. The wind kicked very strong right from the beginning, so riders could rigg their 4.2´s. Already in the first few heats judges had to make a few really tight decisions. Colin Dixon (JP/Neilpryde) succeeded over his mate Andy “Bubble“ Chambers (JP/Neilpryde) with a 2-1 decision and lost his following heat against Niklas Strahlen (RRD/Simmer Style) also 2-1. Nicolas Akgazciyan (Starboard/Gun Sails) sailed a very solid race and could win over Spanish rider Antxon Otaegui (JP/Neilpryde) in possibly the best heat of the day. Davy Scheffers (Tabou/Gaastra) had bad luck in his heat against Vladimir Yakovlev (JP/Neilpryde). His mastbase was almost broken and therefore the winner from the last double elimination on Sardinia ended up on 9th place. Heat nr. 15 saw Edvan Souza de Pedro (RRD/Simmer Style) against Nicolas Akgazciyan and Yarden Meir (Fanatic/Simmer Style) against Steven van Broeckhoven. Although Edvan sailed a solid heat, it was the French rider who took the win and went to the final. Steven van Broeckhoven could win over Israeli Yarden, and so it was Akgazciyan against Van Broeckhoven. Although the wind was blowing stable throughout the whole race, it started to struggle just seconds before the finals. The race for third was decided with the horn opening the heat. Yarden Meir chose with 4,7 a way to small sail and had therefore no chance against Edvan Souza de Pedro. The opponents for the heat 17, the final in the single elimination, made their gear decision together. Under still sailable and fair sailing conditions Nico and Steven celebrated Freestyle windsurfing on the waters of Vassiliki. While amateur surfers left and right of the heat area were standing with slalom equipment, the EFPT riders managed to show impressive moves. Steven collected big points with an air funnel, while Nico showed everybody what the category “flow“ in the EFPT rules means. With the horn for the red flag the wind stopped completely. It took Steven and Nico quite some time to get back to beach on the glassy water at the inside. At about 6pm the result for the final heats was written down on race director Tom Hartmann´s ladder. Steven van Broeckhoven wins the first single elimination on the Milos Beach Lefkada Vassiliki Festival in front of Nicolas Akgazciyan.

As the thermal winds on the island Lefkada never show up before 2pm the race organisation set the skippers meeting for tomorrow at 13.00h. Most of may already have followed the competition on the live stream today. For those who wanna join us live tomorrow, get registered at http://www.vassiliki-watersports-festival.com/

Result of the first single elimination

Rank	Name		Sailnumber	Board	Sail
1	Van Broeckhoven	Steven	B-72	F2	Gaastra
2	Akgazciyan	Nico	F-400	Starboard	Gun Sails
3	Souza de Pedro	Edvan	BRA-250	RRD	Simmer
4	Meir	Yarden	ISR-91	Fanatic	Simmer
5	Yakovlev	Vladimir	RUS-99	JP	Neilpryde
	Otaegui	Antxon	E-169	JP	Neilpryde
	Strahlen	Niklas	S-4444	RRD	Simmer
	Promponas	Stam	GRE-393	Fanatic	Vandal Sails
9	Ruenes	Anthony	F-85	Tabou	Vandal Sails
	Scheffers	Davy	H-311	Tabou	Gaastra
	Zan	Andraz	SLO-49	RRD	RRD Sails
	Rowe	Max	K-448		Simmer
	Dixon	Colin	K-99	JP	Neilpryde
	Tetsis	Alex	GRE-212	JP
	Beholz	Adrian	G-888	F2
	Genkel	Matthias	G-984	RRD	RRD Sails
17	Drummond	Jamie	K-787	Fanatic
	Janssen	Kenny	B-34	Tabou	North Sails
	Zachen	Alex	G-661		Vandal Sails
	Verschooten	Jordi	B-123	Tabou	North Sails
	Chambers	Andy	K-540	JP	Neilpryde
	Vasiliou	Christos	GRE-351		Gun Sails
	Vardakis	Emmanuel	GRE-77		Vandal Sails

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