After a successful 2020 event in late October last year, a fleet of 38 women and 69 men for a total of 107 windsurfers gathered on Lake Garda for the 2021 iQFOiL International Games hosted by Univela Sailing in Campione del Garda. 20 nations are represented here despite the still standing international travel restrictions.

iQFOiL International Games: 17-22 May 2021 - Campione del Garda, ITALY

 

Day1

After a successful 2020 event in late October last year, a fleet of 38 women and 69 men for a total of 107 windsurfers gathered on Lake Garda for the 2021 iQFOiL International Games hosted by Univela Sailing in Campione del Garda. 20 nations are represented here despite the still standing international travel restrictions.

Racing on Day One started around noon as the typical local thermic breeze from the South filled in to reach about 12-15 knots. The firsts to hit the water were the men with three flawless slalom races, followed by the women who had to face a major wind drop and could only finish two races.

 

The provisional ranking at the end of Day One is a French affaire, they occupy all top three spots in the Men. Nicholas Goyard won all of three manches, followed by Clement Burgeois and Adrien Mestre. The defending champion Sebastian Koerdel (GER) closed the day in fifth position with a win in the last race and a ‘dive’ in the first one.

“We had some strong wind slalom races today, and I have to admit I was a bit rusty, and in the first race I fell into the water and had to swim a bit, but then the next two races were better with a 5 and 1, so overall not a dominant performance but I am getting there. The last race was a win and I plan on continuing like that” said the German 2020 iQFOiL International Games winner, Sebastian Koerdel.

Two French sailers within the best three also in the Women fleet, outstripped by one of the only two female British boarders here, Islay Watson. Delphine Cousin capped the day in second place and fellow countrywoman Lucie Belbeoch in third.

Among the athletes coming from far away Sarah Quita Offringa, from Aruba, today tasted the still winterish cold water and cool breeze.. “It was the first day of the event and we had two good windy slaloms, I thought it was cool to start in the line with 20 women and it was exhilarating, I didn’t do too great but it was definitely a good learning experience. One of the biggest challenges was the temperature for me, I’m from the Caribbean and in Aruba when the sun is shining is 30 degrees, and I went out at first in my sleeveless wetsuit, then went back inside and wore the thick one, but no more races for the day.”

Tomorrow’s conditions won’t be as sunny with potential rain in the afternoon, and the Race Committee opted for a morning start, with the ladies going out first at 10 am and the boys following them at 10,30.

Click here, to enjoy the slidegallery of Day 1

 

The video of Day-1

 

Day2

It was a glorious morning at Univela Sailing on Lake Garda, and everything seemed perfect for the scheduled 10am start. Unfortunately, just as the weather forecast said last night, big dark clouds lurked from the mountains surrounding the Campione racecourse blocking the south wind from coming in strong as usual.

Nonetheless the 107 sailors enjoyed some light wind slalom races. The women fleet caught up with the men’s and actually topped them, they have now five in the bag, while the men – who joined the ladies on the water later in the afternoon – could only finish one for a total four slalom races.

The top three girls are the same as yesterday, but the positions got shuffled. Lucie Belbeoch (FRA) is now leading and Islay Watson (GBR) went down to second, with Delphine Cousin (FRA) in third. In the men’s ranking Nicolas Goyard (FRA) continued with yet another bullet to add to the previous three. In the all-French provisional podium, Adrien Mestre is second and Clement Bourgeois is third. 2020 iQFOiL International Games winner, Sebastian Koerdel (GER) is climbing his way up and went from fifth last night to fourth today.

 

The final ranking on Saturday night will crown both the overall winners and the U21 for both and Women and Men fleet. On the beautiful Univela lawn there are plenty of young sailors coming from all over the world and for many of them this is either the first time they compete in the foiling windsurfing class, Olympic in Marseille in 2024, or the first time they sail on Lake Garda, considered by many the Mecca of sailing – at least in Europe. Giovanna Prada, 19 years old, is from Brazil and she is the daughter of Bruno Prada, double Olympic medalist in the Star Class with Robert Scheidt, and five time Star World Champion. The five circles run in the family traits, and she shares her father’s dreams, enthusiasm and, hopefully, talent and destiny. “It is my first time sailing on lake Garda, it was a really atypical day, with a new course for me, I normally race ‘course’ in Brazil, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot, even though the light wind made it a little more difficult going downwind. Racing on a big fleet is challenging for me, especially at the start with many girls all very close together, and the foiling board is more difficult to manage because it’s really fast and it forces you to think about the situation in advance. I dream of going to the Olympics and I am going to do my best to be in Marseille”.

Tomorrow the Race Committee priority will be to get some racecourse in, if the conditions allow it. The first signal will be at 8 am for both Men and Women, to race with the morning wind from the North.

Click here, to enjoy the slidegallery of Day 2.

 

The video of Day-2

 

Day 3

Early morning start at the iQFOiL International Games in Univela Sailing to take advantage of the strong morning breeze from the North, called the Peler. At 8am both fleets were on the racecourse and the Men crossed the first starting line of the first ‘course’ race just a few minutes past eight. The Women then followed and thanks to the beautiful conditions, the Race Committee managed to finish five course races for both Men and Women.

The 69 boys proved to be fearless on the starting lines, going off super-fast, super-close, with part of them opting for a port start. It was a very tactical day, hard to pick the right side reaching upwind as well as going downwind. Sebastian Koerdel (GER) and Nicholas Goyard (FRA) won two race each and were runner-up once, while Huig-Jan Tak (NED) won one race. Koerdel climbed up to third spot overall, Huig-Jan Tak rose to second thanks to the Course race and Nicholas extended his already tremendous margin over the fleet. Today’s provisional podium includes the same three sailors on the 2020 iQFOiL International Games final podium, but the 2021 event won’t be over until Saturday’s knock-out medal races.

“It was quite windy and quite tricky, the fleet is fast with many sailors on the left and many others on the right and you can’t really understand what is the best side, and then you have to manage the other competitors, it’s tricky, but I am happy I got some wins!” commented Nicholas Goyard.

 

The girls also had some adrenalin-fueled starts, 38 girls launching at full speed from the committee boat and the pin aiming for the upwind mark on flying windsurfers. Lucie Belbeoch (FRA) won four of the five races and Emily Hall (GBR) won the other one. Lucie boosted her lead in the overall ranking, Islay Watson (GBR) is second and Delphine Cousin (FRA) third.

“It was good to have some Course races today, I am happy I won most of them, I like all formats and it would be perfect if we could manage to have all of the formats of the class this week” said Lucie Belbeoch on the water.

The Race Committee attempted some more slalom racing in the afternoon, but the South wind never really built up and the fleets went back in.

The plan tomorrow is for a morning session with the third format of iQFOiL Class, the Marathon. Six miles upwind and six miles downwind of pure speed on the Olympic foiling boards. A race some of the younger sailors here have never experienced and are very keen to try.

 

Click here, to enjoy the slidegallery of Day 3.

 

The video of Day 3

 

Day 4

The weather is the main character on every regatta, and today the wind shuffled the plan and instead of going for a morning Marathon, the long regatta was raced in the afternoon with a nice South breeze building up to 15-16 knots for the fun of the 107 sailors patiently waiting on the Univela Sailing lawn.

The initially light south breeze allowed some fun with the last three heats of Race Five of the Men Slalom, after which the Race Committee set the long course for the Marathon, the third discipline of the iQFOiL revolutionary format that counts double. After a spectacular Rabbit Start, six miles sailing upwind and six downwind proved to be challenging for both boys and girls. They had to decide what was the most favorable side to be taking in consideration the whole width of the lake, while tactically defending their positions from the other sailors on the course. The girls started ten minutes before the boys, but by the finish line they looked like a whole fleet.

The first to cross the line was the British girl Islay Watson (GBR) followed by Dutch Sara Wennekes and then Lucie Belbeoch (FRA).

“I really enjoyed the Marathon today, it was certainly a bit different and really challenging”, commented a beaming Islay Watson. “Everyone stayed really compacted even though was such a long race, which was really exciting, the finish was so close! The marathon involved a lot of thinking, I don’t know if I ever thought as much in one race, ‘cause the size of the lake is very complicated, if you are not in the right position it is difficult to stay in the race. It was fun, but it was also really tiring, at the end of the downwind, which was six miles, I really had sore legs and I was ready to go up again, especially with the strong and gusty wind today”.

In the Men the winner of the Marathon is Clement Burgeois (FRA), followed by his fellow countryman Nicolas Goyard and the Dutch Huig-Jan Tak.

 

 

“The day was very good for me, I got three bullets, winning both my heat in the Slalom and the Marathon, after a long fought battle with the other guys that made it good fun!” said Clement Burgeois. “The French are fast and are doing really well here, but the whole fleet is very strong. Today I managed to round first at the first upwind mark and then to keep my lead on the downwind. I made a mistake at the end of the downwind so that a good battle started in the upwind. I was third up to halfway to the finish when I took the lead back. The final reach was crazy with Nico (Goyard) but I managed to win, so it was really good.”

Thanks to his win Clement Burgeois managed to reach the third spot of the overall ranking, while in first and second remain respectively Nicolas Goyard and Huig-Jan Tak. In the ladies, Lucie Belbeoch holds on tight in the lead, Islay Watson leaped on the second place and Lola Sorin (FRA) is third.

Tomorrow is the fifth and final day of the 2021 iQFOiL International Games and the knock-out Medal Races will take place for the best 12 of the overall ranking. The first and second will go straight to the final race, the third and fourth will go to the semis and from fifth to twelfth will race in the quarter final. The last four of every race will be eliminated and won’t access to the next round, until a winner-takes-it-all final among the four best sailors of each fleet.

 

Click here, to enjoy the slidegallery of Day 4

 

The video of Day 4

 

Day 5

They came, they saw and they conquered. The French squadron was the largest national group at Univela Sailing for the 2021 iQFOiL International Games and the one featuring some of the strongest athletes. Among them, Lucie Belbeoch and Nicolas Goyard who have been leading their respective ranking for most of the week and sailed flawlessly in every one of the three formats of the iQFOiL Class, Course, Slalom and Marathon. The rest of the podium for the Women is composed by Islay Watson (GBR) second and Delphine Cousin (FRA) third, while in the Men’s the second is Huig-Jan Tak (NED) and the third Matthew Barton (GBR).

The revolutionary format always ends with a spectacular day of three Medal Races for the best twelve athletes of each fleet. Today, after a very short postponement ashore, the North wind built to 10-12 knots and allowed very fast and exciting quarters, semis and finals for both the Women and Men. Many French flags on the Men quarter final starting line: Ethan Westera (ARU), Elia Colombo (SUI), Alexandre Cousin (FRA), Oel Pouliquen (FRA), Nicolò Renna (ITA), Mathurin Jolivet (FRA), Max Castelein (NED) and Matthew Barton (GBR). Only four moved forward, Max Castelein, Mathurin Jolivet, Nicolò Renna and Matthew Barton, to join last night’s third and fourth in the semi, Clement Bourgeois (FRA) and 2020 winner Sebastian Koerdel (GER). The latter won the race and with Matthew Barton acceded to the final to meet yesterday’s first and second, respectively Nicolas Goyard and Huig-Jan Tak, who eventually confirmed their position welcoming Matthew Barton on the third step of the podium.

The girls in the quarter final were Marion Mortefon (FRA), Sara Wennekes (NED), Maja Natalia Dziamowska (POL), Daniela Peleg (ISR), Lena Erdil (GER), Manon Pianazza (FRA), Maya Morris (ISR) and Delphine Cousin (FRA). The last four were the fastest and went through to the semi to meet Lola Sorin (FRA) and  Mariana Aguillar Chavez Peon (MEX). The French sailors, Lola Sorin and Delphine Cousin conquered the two available tickets to the semi, joining their countrywoman Lucie Belbeoch and British Islay Watson. Just like in the Men’s fleet, Lucie and Islay defended their positions, respectively first and second, with Delphine Cousin winning bronze.

To cap the day and the perfect week organized by Univela Sailing and Società Canottieri Garda e Salò with the patronage of Regione Lombardia, the rest of the sailors went out for a racing session with some slaloms in the early afternoon. This shaped the ranking from the 13^th to the bottom and the podiums of the U21 athletes.

The flourishing Olympic iQFOiL Class squadron will now head into some training before the World Championship in Silvaplana, Switzerland, from 16 to 22 of August.

 

TOP 12 MEN
1^st FRA465 Nicolas Goyard 
2^nd NED465 Huig-Jan Tak
3^rd GBR983 Matthew Barton 
4^th GER220 Sebastian Koerdel
5^th FRA53 Clement Bourgeois 
6^th NED36 Max Castelein U21
7^th FRA9 Mathurin Jolivet
8th ITA150 Nicolo Renna U21
9th FRA10 Oel Pouliquen
10th FRA752 Alexandre Cousin
11th SUI63 Elia Colombo
12^th ARU4 Ethan Westera

TOP 12 WOMEN
1^st FRA18 Lucie Belbeoch
2^nd GBR529 Islay Watson
3rd FRA775 Delphine Cousin
4th FRA31 Lola Sorin U21
5^th ISR7 Maya Morris
6th FRA712 Manon Pianazza U21
7^th GER33 Lena Erdil   
8^th MEX28 Mariana Aguilar Chavez Peon
9^th ISR2 Daniela Peleg U21
10^th POL7 Maja Natalia Dziarnowska
11^th NED33 Sara Wennekes
12^th FRA118 Marion Mortefon

U21 MEN
1^st NED36 Max Castelein
2^nd ITA150 Nicolo Renna
3^rd FRA16 Yun Pouliquen
4^th FRA628 Louis Pignolet
5^th NED17 Joost Vink

U21 WOMEN
1^st FRA31 Lola Sorin
2^nd FRA712 Manon Pianazza
3^rd ISR2 Daniela Peleg
4^th NOR29 Helle Oppedal
5^th FRA11 Marion Couturier

 

The video of Day 5