The iQFoil European Championships, the new Olympic class for Paris 2024, have started in Torbole, on the Garda Trentino, Italy. Until Sunday they will be racing between slalom, course and marathon: the disciplines chosen according to wind conditions.
In the morning at the Circolo Surf Torbole the registration took place, which revealed the final numbers at 155 males and 95 females, representing 41 nations. On Garda Trentino today there was a light wind that reached a maximum of 10 knots, hence the decision to hold four slalom races for both categories.
One of the merits of the new Olympic class is racing in a light wind in the slalom, without renouncing the speed of foil flying, which the athletes are able to achieve in winds that would not be possible for other types of boards. Two race courses were positioned with electric buoys, four men's and two women's flights made for a series of rather fast slaloms.
Racing went on until late afternoon in the qualifying races on this first day of the best-attended iQFoil European Championship ever.
iQFoil European Championships day 1 - photo © Andrea Mochen
With the first four slaloms over the first discard has already been applied. There was no shortage of early start disqualifications, even if these scores were discarded, such as for Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Kiran Badloe (currently eighth 3-3-1-BFD) and Frenchman Clément Bourgeois, who compensated well for the initial BFD with successive three firsts in his flight.
The provisional men's ranking sees the Dutchman Luuc Van Opzeeland in the lead, who left no room for anyone in his heat, scoring four firsts. He is followed by a French double with Tokyo silver medallist Nicolas Goyard (3-1-1) and Clèment Bourgeois (BFD-1-1), in that order. Fourth was Germany's Sebastian Koederdel and in fifth the Italian and Circolo Surf Torbole's Nicolò Renna, who was racing in his home waters. Nicolò fell in the third race after two firsts, but recovered in the fourth and final race of the day, scoring a third.
The women's category: in the lead is the Israeli (u21!) Shahar Reshef, who after an eleventh bagged three firsts. Two points behind was Spain's Lamadrid Trueba (1-13-1-1), second, and in third place Poland's Dziarnowska (1-5-3-1). Not an easy start for the Italians: Giorgia Speciale (15-15-11-11) and the 'home queen' Sofia Renna - Circolo Surf Torbole's athlete (11-7-BFD-19) were 24th and 25th respectively.
Wednesday's scheduled start is at 8:30 am with a northerly wind, with the aim of holding course races throughout the day and closing the qualifying phase as early as possible.
iQFoil European Championships day 1 - photo © Andrea Mochen