iQFOiL: Foil thriller off Stein - Fabian Wolf and Marion Couturier win Kiel Week
Tobias Frauen
· 25.06.2025
The Medal Series in the iQFOiL should be made fairer after the 2024 Olympics, which is why two winning points must be scored in the final. The leader after the preliminary round goes into the final with a one-point lead, so the other finalists have to win at least twice to take victory. With four finalists, four final heats are theoretically possible.
At Kieler Woche, the men and women utilised this principle for the first time since its introduction, resulting in a real race thriller in front of Stein. Marion Couturier from France and Fabian Wolf went into the final day as leaders, Sophia Meyer was also seeded as second in the ranking after the qualifying heats. In the women's event, France's Lucie Belbeoch and Ambar Papazian reached the final via the quarter-finals and semi-finals, while Skip Brull from the Netherlands and Korea's Gunhak Choi qualified for the men's event.
Marion Couturier closes the bag, Sophia Meyer slips to fourth place
It was a real thriller: not only were there several early starts and thus recalls, but the eight finalists also utilised the new rule almost to the maximum. Amber Papazian won the first race in the women's category, while Sophia Meyer took the lead in the second race after some clever tactics. However, an early jibe allowed Lucie Belbeoch to overtake her shortly before the finish and take the win. So it was time for a third run: Sophia Meyer had problems on the first beat, presumably due to seaweed, while Marion Couturier, who had previously been in the lead, sailed safely and confidently to victory! Unfortunately, Meyer dropped back to fourth place in the final standings because she was the only one not to win a heat.
"Winning this event was very, very nice. Today we did the three Grand Finals on the water and it was very tough because the French team was so good. I'm very happy to be on the podium with my friends Lucy and Ambar. I think we will now prepare for the World Championships and try to do our best for the rest of the month," commented Marion Coutourier.
Fabian Wolf holds his nerve in the final thriller
The men were even able to top the thriller in the women's race: Everyone was allowed to cross the line first until Fabian Wolf was finally able to seal the deal. After two days of strong winds, the maximum number of final heats was reached, and the effort was clear to see. Skip Brüll won the first race, in the second race it looked for a long time like Fabi Wolf would win, but then he fell back. Tomas Romanowski won the heat with an unexpected but successful course after only being able to take the lead in the last jibe.
Heat number three was then the hour of Gunhak Choi from Korea. Despite a slip-up at the penultimate buoy - he had misjudged the angle and bobbed around the buoy - he saved his lead to the finish and gave himself and his three fellow competitors a fourth heat, which had to decide the winner. Fabi Wolf then returned to his usual form and celebrated an unchallenged start-to-finish victory. The four finalists were close together for a long time, but Wolf held his nerve and was crowned the winner of the iQFOiL Games at Kieler Woche.
"It was as close as it gets, all four finalists had a winning point and the last race decided everything, it couldn't get any closer!!!! I'm happy that I was able to win the all-or-nothing race in the end and thus clinch victory in the event - hats off to the other three riders, it was really close," said Fabian Wolf. "I could easily have fallen off the podium. It was tricky today, the wind was very up and down, a lot happened on the course," said Wolf, who has only been back in action for six weeks and described the Kieler Woche field as "good to start with".
Erik Wehkamp with a strong performance in the juniors
Earlier in the day, the juniors had entered the Medal Races, where things were decided much quicker: Henrik Loset Eriksen from Norway delivered a strong performance in the U19 classification. The Norwegian had to fight hard to keep his lead, as Erik Wehkamp advanced from the quarter-finals to the grand final and put pressure on Eriksen. But Eriksen remained focussed and secured overall victory in the second race. After his victory, Henrik Eriksen was relieved and satisfied: "I'm happy that I managed to hold on to first position. After the first final run, in which these guys were very fast, it was difficult to keep up. But I'm very happy that I was able to stay in the lead and take the win."
Sweden's David Bleistein dominated the mixed U17 fleet. He crowned a flawless week with his eleventh win in a row, securing the title in the U17 boys' category with aplomb. Bleistein reflected on his success: "It was a good final. I was able to take a pretty strong lead in the downwind and rode fast, pushing hard. It was a great weekend overall. I managed to get 10 bullets out of 10 races and I'm really looking forward to the next competitions." In the U17 girls, Anna Korevaar from the Netherlands narrowly missed out on the Grand Final, but secured overall victory in her category after a consistent and impressive week of racing.
