The chronicle of the IWT-PWA Day 1 Event in Omaezaki, Japan, on march 2023

The Spicare Omaezaki Japan Cup (IWT-PWA Tour) - Day 1 - March 2023

Day 1

Local legend Motoko Sato 🇯🇵 has just siezed the yellow jersey after round 1 in Japan. Sato is now the number one ranked women’s rider in the world. Motoko Sato just made history.

That is HUGE news for Japan and for the Wave World Tour. The Unified PWA IWT WAVE TOUR is ushering in a big rankings shakeup as more riders from the Asia Pacific hemisphere get their chance to rise and shine brightly on the world stage. This will send a seismic shockwave across the rankings. The windsurfing world just changed. Today.

Second in the Women’s Global Rider Rankings after round 1 is Maria Andres 🇪🇸 from Spain, with Jane Seman 🇦🇺 from Australia sitting in 3rd, and Pauline Katz 🇨🇭from Switzerland in 4th. Together these 4 women are now on top of the new Global Rider Rankings and the YELLOW JERSEY IS NOW WITH JAPAN 🇯🇵! For the first time. In history.

The Pro Men’s charged through to reach the final 8 riders and then the sun went down on the day. In small waves the performance standards were impressive. These top 8 riders deserve great praise. Tomorrow the SURFLINE forecast is predicting early winds 15-20 knots with a moderate swell. Will we see these Pro Men progress to finals? Tune in to find out.

Takara Ishii 🇯🇵 JAPAN
Antoine Martin 🇬🇵 GUADELOUPE
Morgan Noireaux 🇺🇸 HAWAI’I
Philip Koster 🇩🇪 GERMANY
Marc Pare 🇪🇸 SPAIN
Ricardo Campello 🇻🇪 VENEZUELA
Bernd Roediger 🇺🇸 HAWAI’I
Marcilio Browne 🇧🇷 BRAZIL

Day 2

Day 2 saw lighter wind and smaller waves, but there was still enough to run quality heats for the Youth and Masters Divisions. It’s great to see all the talent that has developed here in Japan, especially Omaezaki. The Youth fleet was strong with divisions for Under 15 and Under 20. Masters also had an excellent field with a 12 man bracket.

Hayata Ishii, who has become a top pro already was a clear standout taking the U20 win, while local legend Yoshitaka Ikeda took first place in the Masters.

Full results on the day:

U15 Girls
1. Natsuki Wakasa
2. Nozomi Sakai
3. Cocoro Ono

U15 Boys
1. Haruto Konishi
2. Ryoma Sugi
3. Itsuki Noguchi

U20
1. Hayata Ishii
2. Ryu Noguchi
3. Yuki Takanashi

Masters
1. Yoshitaka Ikeda
2. Takashi Endo
3. Kyota Morita

While conditions never quite materialized to finish the Pro men’s fleet, there was an impressive expression session that went down. Riders took to the water to show their best for a cash prize from main sponsor Spicare. Antoine Albert and Takuma Sugi were the standouts taking first and second respectively. Antoine took the win with a clean Air Chacho, while Takuma was a close second pulling a clean Burner. While it may not have been perfect conditions for wave riding, the freestyle talents were able to show their stuff.

There are still days left in the window to complete the Pro division, so stay tuned for the call each morning. The livestream will be running to record it all.

Check out the livestream link here:
https://internationalwindsurfingtour.com/omaezaki-japan-cup-23/

Thank you to our event partners SPICARE, OMAEZAKI CITY and the wonderful windsurfing community of Japan with the JWA and all those amazing volunteers. Thank you Omaezaki! Thank you Japan 🇯🇵!!!

(Text by IWT)