THE ROAD TO VICTORY

Yentel Caers recounts his colossal comeback in Sylt, which eventually saw the Belgian earn his second Freestyle world title the hard way.

- Yentel Caers

Yentel Caers entered the final event of the season in Sylt as the Freestyle World Tour leader and had his sights firmly set on a second world title. However, things didn't exactly go to plan with a surprise early exit in the single elimination leaving him with a mountain to climb and his world title hopes potentially in tatters. We caught up with Yentel to hear his side of a colossal comeback, both mentally and physically, which saw the Belgian maestro win eight consecutive heats to deservedly earn his second Freestyle world title.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY

This is my second Freestyle world title and I think this one feels even better than the first. This year I won the event in Fuerteventura, which was a dream come true for me. The world title was not my main goal for the year, I really wanted to win in the Canary Islands and managing to achieve that put me in pole position for the title coming into Sylt, which is such a hard event to do well at. For my first world title I didn't actually win an event... I was just the most consistent sailor over the course of the season, which is also part of the game. This year we only had two events, so the pressure was really on to perform at your top level as there was basically no margin for error - especially if you wanted to challenge for the podium positions.

AN EARLY SETBACK

I lost against Lennart [Neubauer] in the second round of the single elimination, who eventually went on to win the entire event. I think he really deserved to win, but after an early exit in the single I was also stoked that I managed to fight all the way back in the double elimination to face him in the final.