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| Date: 27. Sept. - 04. Oct. |
| Location: Sylt / Germany |
| Status: Grand Slam |
| Discipline: Race |
| Prizemoney: 120.000 $ |
| ©SSM / Dan Atkins Location: The 1998 PWA World Tour has returned to Sylt on the Island of Westerland, Northern Germany. The Sylt competition is one of the longest running events on the World Cup Curcuit and is celebrating it's 15th year as a Professional World Tour venue. Sylt is a truly radical venue, recognised by the sailors as providing the gnarliest wind and wave conditions on tour with rapidly changing weather systems and shorebreak conditions that can catch a World Champion out ! Sylt is equally capable of providing temperatures above 30 degC in the summer months and is a magnificent location, making it a popular windsurfing and holiday venue for thousands of Germans every year. Ever since the first event here in Germany, the crowds have been the largest on tour, and this year is no exception. Crowds in excess of 5,000 turned out to witness the pomp and splendour of the opening ceremony when the world's top Windsurfers parade along the promenade, each carrying their national flag. The event site provides an opportunity for windsurfing enthusiasts to meet the World's top professionals, attend frequent autograph sessions, view the latest windsurfing videos, try the climbing wall, admire the latest windsurfing kit or just enjoy the sun, sand and views. Sylt is also infamous on the World Tour as an incredible party venue. A disused hanger on the old airfield is converted into a night-club for the 8 day event, with a differing theme or music style each night from dance to live rock groups. The FleetThis event holds Grand Slam status and therefore carries maximum points towards the 1998 PWA World Ranking. As a result all the top ranked sailors are here, with only a few exceptions due to injury. The highest profile sailor 'not' present here in Sylt is the current World Wave Champion Jason Polakow. The Australian broke his hand in an accident whilst en-route to the event and returned home immediately. The second absent sailor is 1996 Wave World Champion, Patrice Belbeoc'h. The big Frenchman picked up a viral infection a few weeks back and is still unwell. The absence of Polakow means that USA-6 Josh Stone is elevated to the number 1# seed position ahead of 1998 championship leader E-11 Bjorn Dunkerbeck and US-1111 Robby Naish. The 4# and 5# seeds here in Germany are the mo-hawked Kiwi, KZ-1 Scott Fenton, who will be looking to perform the first 'double push-loop' in competition, and England's Nik Baker K-66, the 5 times Indoor World Champion and the current world number 2 in waves. Race FinalThis event is also the final Racing event of the year, hence the 1998 PWA Racing World Championship will be won and lost here in Germany. Almost the entire PWA top 40 are here in pursuit of the 1998 world Crown. 10 times Overall World Champion Bjorn Dunkerbeck is currently leading the rankings with only a narrow lead ahead of US-933 Kevin Pritchard. Also in the running are US-93 Matt Pritchard, S-10 Anders Bringdal and F-192 Antoine Albeau. Dunkerbeck was defeated at a Grand Slam competition for the first time in PWA history this July. Now, the World Champion must defend his 10 year unbeaten record against the some of strongest competition he has ever faced. Top contenders to break Dunkerbeck's long running winning streak in Race are the Pritchard brothers Matt and Kevin, who have been identified by Bjorn himself as the likely successors to his throne. Conditions Races started on day 4 of the German event, after three days of light wind, rain and fog. Northeasterly winds then blew for four days between 12 and 18 knots. The 6th race was a slalom held in 25-35 knots of chilly winds and extremely choppy water. Dunkerbeck and Jaggi take the 1998 PWA Racing World Championship Titles Day 8 of the Fa Westerland 1998 PWA Grand Slam and the forecast Force 3-4 north-easterly winds failed to materialise and no further racing took place. Dunkerbeck takes the event honoursBjorn Dunkerbeck took the Race event victory for the third consecutive year in the Sylt competition after a nail-biting battle with veteran Aussie Phil McGain. McGain pushed the reigning champion all the way to the final race, missing out by just 3 points with Kevin Pritchard finishing in third position. In the women's racing, Z-14 Karin Jaggi managed to take victory by the narrowest of margins ahead of the devastatingly consistent G-54 Andrea Hoeppner. Hoeppner, must be dissapointed to not have successfully defended her event title here in Sylt with a score sheet that boasted only 1 result worse than 2nd position from 9 races ! Two new champions are crownedThe win for Bjorn Dunkerbeck secures the first 1998 PWA World Championship Title for the sailor who last year became an incredible, undefeated, 10 times PWA World Champion. Dunkerbeck, who is also currently leading the PWA Wave Rankings will be looking forward to the final 2 PWA events of the year in Brazil and Maui where he will attempt to inrease his inredible winning streak to 11 years as PWA Overall World champion. Joining Dunkerbeck on the podium to receive his Racing World Title will be Kevin and Matt Pritchard. The two brothers have achieved their highest ever PWA World Race Ranking this year and are both well within striking distance of the PWA Overall World Title. The racing win easily secured the 1998 PWA Racing Championship for Karin Jaggi. The young Swiss sailor, who has previously only held the PWA Speedsailing World Title now has a new world crown and is well placed to take a 'clean-sweep' by winning Race, Wave and Overall this year. Sandra Gubelmann, Z-3, also from Switzerland finished 2nd in the 1998 PWA Race Championship ahead of G-680 Jutta Mueller. The tour rolls on....The PWA World Windsurfing tour which began in Australia in February now moves on to Brazil and then Maui, Hawaii for the final two wave contests of 1998. THE FA WESTERLAND 1998 PWA GRAND SLAM
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