Following the first session of the day at the 2026 Citroën Windsurf World Cup on Sylt, the freestyle final, As was the case yesterday, the stage was handed over to the foil racers. Conditions were excellent: a steady 20 knots and above, glorious sunshine and, with an offshore easterly wind, glassy water with only a slight swell. “In 16 years on Sylt, I’ve never experienced it this good,” enthused Matteo Iachino. “Good wind, warm and flat water!” The only downside: the course was once again out at sea, this time south of the promenade, but all the races were livestreamed on the large video wall.
The Sylt audience was, of course, particularly interested in Fabian Wolf, who had moved to the top of the table yesterday with two wins. Once again today, “The Wolf” got off to a flying start. A second place in the quarter-final and a third in the semi-final secured his place in the last eight in the day’s first elimination round. There, he finished fourth, behind Bruno Martini, the perennial runner-up Maeeto Iachino and Amado Vrieswijk. The man from Bonaire was flying on his smallest sail and, after a poor start in the final, managed to fight his way from last place right to the front – aided by the fact that the Italian duo of Iachino and Martini initially headed for the wrong mark after their first gybe. In stronger winds, Wolf wasn’t quite as dominant as he had been yesterday.
Fabi Wolf back on top in light winds
It was a completely different story for Pierre Mortefon, who had been third in the overall rankings up to that point: in a nail-biting race, Benoit Merceur edged past Mortefon by the narrowest of margins on the home straight in the first semi-final. Although he went on to win the third-place play-off in Elimination Four in commanding fashion, third place was now out of reach – and even a fifth-place finish in the day’s second elimination round did nothing to change that.
The fact that the first string came into play after the fourth round did little to alter the order of the leaders, such was the consistency of the top riders. In elimination five, there were hardly any surprises right up to the final, but then Matteo Iachino secured his first victory following a picture-perfect start, thereby taking the overall lead. Fabi Wolf’s third-place finish secured him second place in the event rankings. Between the two of them came Hugo Sjöberg from Sweden, who thereby achieved his best result to date on the PWA Tour.
Whilst the wind had already died down by the second heat, it was even weaker in the third elimination race of the day. That was ‘Fabi-Wolf weather’ all over again: he won both his quarter-final and the semi-final ahead of Amado Vrieswijk. In the second semi-final, the wind died down completely, and the race committee announced that was it for the day. Given the forecast, the provisional standings are likely to stand; at most, there is a small chance of further races taking place on Saturday.
All heats and results can be found at pwaworldtour.com
