The women's races on Ringkøbing Fjord were particularly exciting: Jenna Gibson and Justine Lemeteyer fought a neck-and-neck race, which the Briton won by a wafer-thin margin. In the end, both were tied on points with identical results. But because Gibson won the final elimination, she was able to celebrate her fourth IFCA World Championship title. "I was hoping that the wind and daylight would be enough for a final round," she wrote on Friday after the final races. "I gave it everything I had to win the last race by pumping down the entire first reach. With this win we were tied on points again (both with 3x 1st place and 3x 2nd place). I was behind her all week and that really sucked, but the tide finally turned in my favour when I won the last race!"
The disappointment was all the greater for Justine Lemeteyer: "I wanted the world title and am disappointed with this result, but after a close fight with Jenna and a tie on points at the end, she is the one who takes the win," she wrote on Instagram "It's more than deserved!" Lemeteyer is hard on herself and her preparation: "I paid the price for not including this event in my priorities for the year. I have the perfect equipment for AFF (French slalom series, editor's note.) and PWA, but I would have needed an 8.2 here."
Bruno Martini becomes unchallenged world champion on the Fin
The men's races were less exciting, but no less entertaining. Bruno Martini sailed safely to the front, winning all eliminations. "It wasn't an easy week," he summarised, "the wind fluctuated between 10 and 45 knots. I used every single sail." Local hero Johan Søe ended up in second place: "It was fun to race on the fin again after all the foiling I've done in the last two years. You could see that I still know a bit about how to do it (probably also thanks to the equipment)!" Behind runner-up Søe, Jordy Vonk took bronze. "I'm happy to be on the podium again," said Vonk. "The difficult conditions throughout the event made it hard for me to be consistent, but I still think it's a solid result."
Gunnar Asmussen came fourth and won the masters classification. "The mast and sail broke before the final of the fourth elimination. I needed some time to tune the new 8.6, but I was able to take second place in Elimination 5," Gunnar wrote on Instagram. "I had a run in Elimination 6 - I won the first and second rounds and was already well ahead in the final, but unfortunately the race was cancelled. I'm happy with my performance, I just needed some race practice."
Anton Richter took bronze in the youth category, while the best German junior was Mika Henning in eighth place. "We have set a new trend with the All-in World Championships, which brought all the competitions together in one place for the first time. This ground-breaking concept will be remembered forever," said the IFCA enthusiastically. She especially thanked the organisers of the Waterz Festival in Hvide Sande.
Results IFCA Fin World Championship 2024
Gents
- 1 Bruno Martini
- 2nd Johan Søe
- 3rd Jordy Vonk
- 4 Gunnar Asmussen
- 5th Benoit Merceur
- 14 Tim Wunderlich
- 15 Helge Wilkens
- 16 Oliver Schott
- 21 Nils Bach
- 24 Christoph Deus
- 29 Marcus Becker
- 30 Frank Gutewort
- 32nd Bjerke Studt
- 36 Bernd Langbehn
- 37 Robert Ahlborn
- 39 Andreas Kurzawski
- 39 Torsten Heins
Ladies
- 1st Jenna Gibson
- 2nd Justine Lemeteyer
- 3 Femke van der Veen
- 4th Mae Davico
- 5 Tess Sermet
Teenagers
- 1st Sacha Fortune
- 2 Eliot Joly
- 3rd Anton Richter
- 4th Noah Vinther
- 5 Brendan Lorho
- 7 Leo Richter
- 17th Tjorve Studt
- 25th Jesse Richter
- 28 Thies Johnsen
- 29 Maximilian Niclaas Damm
Juniors
- 1st Pires Luca
- 2. Cinar Tuncar
- 3rd Sarp Paksoyku
- 4th Can Eskinazi
- 5 Jean-Loup Francis
- 8th Mika Henning
- 10 Paul Regber
- 13 Felix Rohde
- 15 Jesper-Mo Thomsen
