The rankings are up and down!

20/05/2022

Finals finally began, as the fleets were split into gold and silver. The strong southerly breeze allowed the committee to run two race courses and the marathon. On day four, depending on the wind strength, the plan is to run more course races. While in the men’s fleet the Dutch Luuc Van Opzeeland is extending his lead, in the women’s fleet points are very tight, with Emma Wilson from team GBR overtaking the French Hèléne Noesmoen.

On day 3 the fleets were split into gold and silver. As soon as the classic “Ora” breeze kicked in strong, the 256 participants launched from the Circolo Surf Torbole, which is hosting the IQFoil European Championship from the 17th till the 22nd of May. With the wind being stronger and more steady compared to day one and day two, all the fleets managed to complete two race courses. The strong breeze, averagely in between 15-18 knots, with some peaks at 20 knots around 3 pm, gave the chance to set the course ready for the marathon. This particular style of racing today gifted competitors, coaches, and spectators with some thrilling rabbit-style starts, a 20 nautical miles big racing area, and a spectacular finishing line right in front of the hosting club. The fourth day of racing brought some changes in both the women’s and men’s leaderboards. Scoring a 1st, a 3rd, and a 4th place in the marathon, which has a double point-scoring like a medal race, the British Emma Wilson is now leading the women’s European Championship with a net of 19 points, with Hèléne Noesmoen (2-1-9-9) in second position (23 points). The Polish Maja Dziarnowska (3-6-7-7) climbs from the fifth to the third position Points keep being very tight with 10 points only separating the 4th and the 7th position.

About day 4 Emma commented: “We had a really nice Ora breeze,I had really good starts and good speeds. From there I just tried and keep it simple and I just enjoyed the place, because it’s a really nice place.” In the men’s fleet, the Dutch Luuc Van Opzeland (2-46-1-1) has extended his lead with a net of 18 points and has overtaken the French Nicolas Goyard (14-17-77), now in third position. The Italian Nicolò Renna (5-RDG 4.33-4) has climbed from fourth to the second position with a net of 30.33 points.