Albeau breaks through 52-knot barrier
RECORDS continued to crash at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge on Wednesday, with Antoine Albeau of France leading the way.
Surfing in winds of 40 to 45 knots, Albeau broke his previous world record of 51,69 knots that he set on November 17, with a new world speed record of 52,05 knots.
In the process he became the first windsurfer in the world to break the 52-knot barrier, while he also broke the 50-knot barrier five times and the 51-knot barrier six times – another first.
Anders Bringdal of Sweden was not far behind as he set a new world record on a production board of 51,45 knots, which beat his former world record mark of 51,34 knots that he set four days earlier.
Jurjen van der Noord of the Netherlands became the fourth windsurfer to break the 51-knot barrier after Albeau, Bringdal and Cedric Bordes of France, when he set a new Dutch record of 51,26 knots.
Nick Vardalachos became the sixth windsurfer to break the 50-knot barrier when he set a new Greek national record of 50,56 knots, while Patrick Diethelm equalled his Swiss national record of 50,49 knots.
Several other national records were also established.
Despite sailing in only moderate wind, Alexander Goncharov twice broke the Ukrainian record ending with a new mark of 40,94 knots, while Boris Vujasinovic broke the Croatian national record with a new mark of 42,27 knots.
Mark Grinnell broke his own South African record of 48,86 knots with a new speed of 49,66 knots, bringing him ever closer to the 50 knot barrier.
Martyn Ogier of the United Kingdom improved his personal best speed to 48,21 knots, to close in on Farrel O Shea's British record of 48,82 knots, while Martin van Meurs of the Netherlands also put in a personal best performance of 47,95 knots.
In a significant move, Bjorn Dunkerbeck of Switzerland, who has won the Professional Windsurfer's Association Overall World Championships a record 12 times, arrived in Lüderitz on Tuesday to also join in the fray and challenge for the world record.
After just a couple of runs he already looked in good form, reaching a speed of 49,53 knots.
Dunkerbeck could not contain his excitement on his personal website, saying he was out to break the world record.
"The conditions are perfect, and I can't wait to sail there, I want to break the record, it will be hard, but it will be possible, because it looks extremely fast! Yes!" he wrote.
Source: http://www.namibian.com.na
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