The fourth and penultimate day of the iQFOiL International Games as part of Kieler Woche brought winds of over 25 knots, which were all about making it into the Medal Series. Five course races were completed in both senior fleets
In the men's event, Fabian Wolf managed to leap to the top of the rankings with two victories. Tomasz Romanowski follows close behind in second place overall and still has a chance of winning the title. Continuing their strong performances from the previous day, Skip Brull and Jeronimo Abogado secured their places in the top 8 with consistently good results. Germany's Max Körner and Oscar Buch from Denmark also showed nerves of steel and qualified for the medal decision in seventh and eighth place. "I'm pretty happy about that," said Buch. "It was a very tough day today with ups and downs, but luckily I made it in the end!" The strong presence of the Korean riders is also remarkable: Gunhak Choi and Taehoon Lee are currently in third and sixth place respectively.
Couturier maintains lead in the women's category, Sophia Meyer close behind
In the women's field, Marion Couturier was able to defend her top position and secure her direct entry into the Grand Final. "There was a lot of rain and wind again today, we had very strong winds like yesterday, maybe a little less, around 20 to 25 knots," she said, describing the conditions. "I'm very happy with my performance, I was consistent and that was the key to keeping the lead. Tomorrow I want to continue like this and maybe win the competition... that would be really nice!" Sophia Meyer also put in a strong performance and followed close behind in second place. She won the last race of the day once again.
The biggest leap forward was made by Zara Rozeboom, who improved to fourth place overall and thus booked a place in tomorrow's semi-final. "We just got off the water and I had a pretty good day," she reported after the final race. "I started with two wins, which were also my first wins in the iQFOiL Senior fleet! After that I had some stable results and am now in fourth place for the semi-finals tomorrow, so I couldn't be happier!" Chiara Ferretti also qualified for the final deciding round with consistently good results.
Medal Series in ideal conditions
In the Youth and Junior divisions, the rankings remained largely unchanged despite the challenging wind conditions, although the competition was no less intense. In the U17 mixed fleet, Anna Korevaar continued her impressive form and qualified directly for the semi-finals. Ginevra Giunti will enter the quarter-finals in eighth place and still has a chance to improve her overall ranking.
The decisions in the Medal Series will be made today, Wednesday. The mode is identical to other iQFOiL contests: The top two go straight into the final, third and fourth place into the semi-final, while places five to ten start in a quarter-final. From this, the two best will go through to the semi-finals, and from there the winner will go through to the final. There, it's all about who can claim two wins first, with the leader of the table being "credited" with a win. The conditions are likely to be much tamer than in the last two days.
