While just three knots were blowing at the PWA World Cup on Lake Garda, the iQFoilers in Patras, Greece, added a zero on the back: between 25 and 35 knots of wind made for extremely challenging conditions on the second day of the European Championships. As a reminder, the Olympic class competes on standardised sails with nine (men) and eight square metres (women).
The first start was then also postponed a little, but four runs could be completed during the course of the day. It was almost boring at the front in the men's race: Nicolas Goyard crossed the finish line first in the yellow group in all four runs, always followed by Huig-Jan Tak from the Netherlands. These two are now also at the top of the overall rankings, while Sebastian Kördel slipped down to third place.
Although the reigning world champion rode solidly, finishing 7th, 3rd, 2nd and 5th in his group, he was not at his best at the start, as he wrote on Instagram. "Later on, I became more confident from race to race," said the man from Lake Constance. Third place still secures him a place in the Gold Fleet for the races scheduled for today.
Fabian Wolf made up two places with 68th place, while Jonne Heimann slipped down one place. Lars Poggemann climbed from 97th to 96th place.
Sharon Kantor and Tamar Steinberg dominate the women's competition
Two starters also dominated the day in the women's event: Sharon Kantor and Tamar Steinberg, both from Israel, are in first and second place after eight runs. Kantor took four wins in a row in her group yesterday, while Steinberg managed one win and three second places. Both are still competing in the U21 category, Steinberg is just 16 years old. Sara Wennekes from the Netherlands, still in first place after the first day, is now in third place behind the duo from Israel.
Lena Erdil got off to a bad start, not competing in the first run and then finishing a disappointing 27th in the second. But in the last two runs she showed that she is also good for the top 10 with seventh and ninth place. Theresa Steinlein is in 31st place and has thus climbed six places, and was also able to sniff the top 10 with an eighth place. Alisa Engelmann has slipped four places to 45th.
The highlights of day 2 of the iQFoil-EM in the video
Today the field will be divided into the gold and silver groups and the plan is to start the marathon. A livestream from Patras has also been announced!
