Continuano le giornate ricche di azione e di regate portate a termine con successo a Campione del Garda per i iQFoil International Games. Giovedì è stata svolta anche una Maratona Race.
Matteo Iachino continua ad essere saldamente in 4° posizione. Gli altri italiani: Bruno Martini 25°, Nicolo Renna 34°, Francesco Scagliola 48°, Luca Di Tomasi 50°, Antonino Cangemi 57°, Jacopo Renna 61°, Carlo Ciabatti 63°, Riccardo Renna 67°, Alessandro Tomasi 71°, Jacopo Gavioli 84°, Manolo Modena 91°. Oggi giornata con poco vento qui sul Garda, mentre domani sarà l’ultimo giorno di gara. Stay tuned.
CLICCA QUI per la classifica completa.
DAY2
THE DAY OF THE MARATHON
AT iQFOiL INTERNATIONAL GAMES
Plenty of races in the books on Day two of the the iQFOiL International Games at Univela Sailing in Campione, Lake Garda, consolidating its reputation of an ideal spot for sailing. The morning began as planned with the women starting at 9:30 for the Marathon race, one of the three formats of the new Olympic sail board; the men followed in right after at 9:40. The wind was very light when everybody arrived to the club before racing, but it picked up as the sun came up from behind the tall mountains that surround the beautiful Italian lake, burning away the morning fog.
A fascinating ‘rabbit start’ for both men and women, racing separately, who were for the first time experimenting with the long distance format in a very big fleet. The course consisted of a six nautical mile long upwind to Capo Reamol, then a downwind towards the beautiful castle in Malcesine, sitting on the opposite side from Univela Sailing in Campione. 8 to 10 knots on the racecourse from the North with the typical ‘Peler’, known and appreciated by all the sailors who are familiar with these shores. It was a classic situation where the rich got richer, and the ones who started well kept the lead all the way down to the finish. Kiran Badloe (NED), Rytis Jasunias (LTU) and Alexander Cousin (FRA) were the top three in the men, with Belgian Steven van Broeckhoven in fourth – all coming from different backgrounds: a RS:X sailor, two from the PWA and a world champion in freestyle. In the women the best one was Israeli Noy Drihan, followed by two Polish riders, Maja Dziarnowska and Karolina Lipinska; with last night overall leader Helene Noesmoen finishing in fourth.
“I had a really bad start, but I managed to make up on the upwind – commented Steven Van Broeckhoven – I was pumping a lot because I was afraid I would be last, and this brought me among the top ten at the upwind mark, then had no idea in which position I would be downwind, I was just working hard to be as fast as possible, and I was very please to find myself in fourth position!
“I am actually a freestyler, I’ve been competing for more than 10 years in the PWA freestyle, I am the 2011 World Champion and I have won five times the European title in that discipline. The foiling, in the beginning, represented for me just the alternative for fun in light winds, but now I actually got more into the racing, and especially now that it is an Olympic class I focus a lot more on the foiling.”
“It was a pretty exciting first Marathon in iQFOiL – said Rytis Jasiunas, a young, promising and big Lithuanian rider – and I wasn’t sure how it would go, I waited on the beach until the very last second to see the wind conditions and pick the right gear, when I saw that the wind was on the light side I got the right set up for that. I had a good start and I was on leading pack from the first tack.
“We are still discovering the pros and cons of each body type in this class. One of the pro is certainly that being more than 2 mt tall I can put a lot of power in the foil from the side: you can see that Kiran (Badloe) and I – both over 1,95 mt – are first and second, so I don’t know if it is only for that, but I can put a lot of power even though I am on the heavier side, being above 90 kg, I can power the gear to do well in the light conditions as it happened today”
“I enjoyed the Marathon very much – commented the female winner of the Marathon Noy Drihan – the wind conditions were the ones I like, not too strong and not too light, perfect for foiling and it was super fun. Coming from the RS:X I find it very nice to foil, I love the feeling of flying over the water. I had already tried the Marathon in Silvaplana in the Open Championship, and that experience probably helped me here today to win this race.”
With the ‘Ora’ building up as the air warmed in the afternoon, the women were the first to hit the water with the slalom race format, so as to catch up to the races completed by the men from yesterday. The French PWA rider Delphine Cousin got the first bullet while the second went to fellow countrywoman Helene Noesmoen, thus consolidating her overall leadership.
Sebastian Koerdel (GER) proved to be the best of the men in the Slalom, winning again in today’s race, with the Italian PWA windsurfer, Matteo Iachino finishing third.
“It was a good day today – says Italian rider Matteo Iachino – with the Marathon in the morning with light wind dying on us, a very tricky downwind, but I can’t complain as I finished ninth after recovering from a bad start, in the middle of the fleet. Slalom in the afternoon was fun, a good third for me so I am still there fighting with the best; I am enjoying the new iQFOiL class, the gear is great and they’re managing everything well.”
Day two wraps up in Campione Univela, while we are already looking at tomorrow’s conditions, that look similar to today’s. Some windward-leeward races are planned in the morning and a couple of slalom races in the afternoon, were confirmed in the evening skippers’ briefing, held online to avoid assemblies in these critical times we are facing. This is just one of the many strategies put in place by Univela Sailing, and the co–organising club Società Canottieri Garda Salò, in order to keep the international event on the calendar and run it safely both ashore and on the water.
DAY3
iQFOiL INTERNATIONAL GAMES
GETTING CLOSER TO FINALS SERIES
Another picture perfect morning at Univela Sailing in Campione, Lake Garda, where almost 200 riders are gathered for the iQFOiL International Games, the first real global event for the next-to-be Olympic sail board at the Paris 2024 Games. Three formats, equally sailed until today, Course (windward-leeward) to be sail when over 10 knots, Slalom (rounding three or four marks) preferred when below 10 knots, and a Marathon (one long distance race worth two points in the scoreboard).
Day three started as usual with the North wind ‘Peler’ coming down strong at 12-16 knots allowing both the Men’s Gold fleet and the Women two exciting and fair Course races, with French rider Nicholas Goyard winning both of them, thus consolidating his overall leadership going in to the afternoon session of competition. Sebastian Koerdel (GER) was second in the first race, but didn’t perform to his expected standard on the second, a 13th that he was luckily able to discard, while the second bullet for the Men went to Pierre Lecoq (FRA).
In the Women’s fleet the French athlete, who is proving to be the best all round rider so far, scored another first and second, Helene Noesmoen is flying towards the Final Series with a nice margin over the other competitors. Noy Drihan (ISR) won the second, but had to discard the first one, her worst score in the series (18).
Among the many siblings racing one against the other here at Univela Sailing, there are two British windsurfing sisters, always on the top since the youth sailing days, and if Saskia fought hard until lately to get to Tokyo, here is her ‘little sister’ – by only half an hour – to to be among the top 10, Imogen Sills, who finished third in the second Course race.
“It’s been so fun but very stressful at the same time. It’s just amazing I can’t believe all of us foiling on the water, just flying all over the racecourse, it’s been amazing! I retired from my Olympic campaign due to an injury two and a half years ago, then when iQFOiL came back in, I felt like I wanted to give it a go. But as I’ve been working full time in Norway for the last two months and haven’t been training at all, I am really surprised of how well it is going. I think I’ll go on with this, it’s really fun and addictive!”
A lunch break that went on a little longer than the previous days, as the ‘Ora’ wouldn’t fill in strong, and even when it showed up, it was still on the very light side of about 8 – 10 knots. Nonetheless one Slalom race for each division (Men and Women) was written in the scoreboard, taking the numbers of races up to 11. The best men were once again Sebastian Koerdel (GER), Nicolas Goyard (FRA) and Matteo Iachino (ITA), respectively first, second and third in the Final A, securing their leading position overall. In the women the Slalom went again to Helene Noesmoen, who has six bullets out of 11 races, Maja Dziarnowska (POL) was second and Lena Ersilia (GER) third.
“The week has been really nice, different wind conditions and format, so it was really good and interesting – says provisional overall Women leader Helene Noesmoen – coming from the RS:X I am really loving the new class, it’s really exciting because of the speed, everything is very fast, you have to be much quicker in the tactics and in taking decisions, and it’s really nice to do some slalom races, some long distance, very different intensity. I think it’s the best to have these three formats, because in the really light wind it’s hard to go upwind, and it’s so good that it’s bringing people here from different worlds, the Olympics and the PWA.”
Day three ends with changes in positions over the top 10, but same leaders: the French Nicolas Goyard in the Men and Helene Noesmoen in the Women.
Full results here:
http://iqscore-live.s3-website.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/results
The weather forecast for tomorrow might be as easy as these past few days, the plan is to get as many races as possible in the morning, aiming for more Courses, and again some Slaloms in the afternoon. Univela Sailing and Società Canottieri Garda e Salò, the event organisers with the IQ Foil Class, will keep the athletes informed via phones, not to avoid assemblies by the club to comply with the Italian Government safety rules.
