Noesmoen and Goyard on top of Europe

23/05/2022

Exciting final day of the iQFOiL European Championship, with the Medal Races series being run in a southerly breeze that kept on dropping through the whole afternoon, making the battles, if possible, even more interesting. Champions were crowned as Hélène Noesmoen and Nicolas Goyard take the titles of European Champions after a really tight race.

Another misty and tricky day welcomed the Medal Racers to the water, on the final day of the iQFOiL European Championship, with an inconstant southerly breeze that kicked in strong enough around 1 pm and kept on dropping through the whole afternoon, making it hard to run the last final race. With the wind becoming more and more patchy at every given minute and the knock-out system, used for the Medal Race Series, the space left for any mistake was very little and many competitors took risky decisions by pushing on the starting line and eventually getting disqualified for early starts. Every competitor pushed to the maximum around the course and following the Medal Race was a pure delight for the eyes of the spectators on the water and online, thanks to the tracking service provided by Sailmon.

The leaderboard surely changed shape with both the British Emma Wilson and the Dutch Luuc Van Opzeeland, losing their leading positions. After a very tight final race with Emma Wilson and Maja Dziarnowska, both qualified for the final after racing an impressive semi-final, Hélène Noesmoen takes the Women’s European Champion title.
The first words of Hélène after coming back onshore: "It was a tough Medal Race, we had a nice battle with the girls, Maja and Emma, and the game was tight from the beginning to the end, but I am really happy to take this win."
Bit of a shocker also for the Dutch Luuc Van Opzeeland, disqualified on the final race for an early start. After Luuc’s disqualification and a sensational “vis-à-vis” battle between the other two competitors qualified for the final race, the title of Men’s European Champion goes to Nicolas Goyard while Nicolò Renna takes the second position.
Nicolas’ comment was: "It was a really tricky race and a sort of chasing game between us three. I actually managed it pretty well, I pushed Luuc and almost Nicolò out of the start, and during the second start I managed to keep myself in front of Nicolò, so it was really good."
The European Championship hosted by Circolo Surf Torbole was a true success, with all the races being completed. 8 slalom series, 10 race courses, one marathon, and six days of tough and thrilling racing. Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to the hosting Club, committees, volunteers, and competitors that made this event one for the books.