Great start to Lüderitz Speed Challenge

The 2012 Lüderitz Speed Challenge got off to a great start as several world and national records were broken on the opening days of competition last week.

Antoine Albeau, who has held 20 windsurfing world championships since 1994, started the Challenge off in great style on November 7 when he set a new world windsurfing record of 49,41 knots. This broke his own previous record of 49,09 knots (90,91km/h) that he set in 2008. The fact that the new record was set in only 38 knots of wind makes the possibility of more records later in the competition that much greater. Two days later, Albeau was once again one of the quickest surfers with a speed of 48,57 knots, while the French windsurfer Cédric Bordes managed to sail the exact time of the previous windsurfing world record of 49,09 knots.The Swedish legend Anders Bringdal broke the world record in windsurfing on a production board twice on November 7, while he also improved his Swedish national record to 48,38 knots.Two days later, Bringdal once again set a new windsurfing world record for a production board with a speed of 48,60 knots. The female world record in windsurfing was broken twice by Zara Davis of Britain, as she improved the world and the British records to 44,19 knots. Lena Aylin Erdil also broke the Turkish record twice with a speed of 41,53 knots on November 7 and 42,60 knots two days later. Farrel O’Shea of Britain was in great form and beat the UK record twice, ending with a top speed of 46,15 knots.Patrick Diethelm of Switzerland broke the Swiss national record twice with a speed of 46,29 knots on November 7 and 46,55 knots two days later. The German competitors once again pushed each other to break the national German record on three occasions.Christian Bornemann set a new record of 43,93 knots on November 7, but two days later, Dieter Gerichhausen improved that mark to 44,01 knots before Bornemann once again claimed the record with a new speed of 44,41 knots. Compatriot Christian Benzing, who reached a personal best with 40,33 knots on November 7, also improved his mark to 42,81 knots two days later. The current Namibian speed windsurfing record holder, Matthias Röttcher, watched the event in the media and decided to take his 4×4 across the desert to join the group early on November 9. It was an inspired move as he went on to break his national record of 41,44 knots with a new speed of 42,32 knots. Windsurfers from 16 different countries are competing at the 2012 Lüderitz Speed Challenge.

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