On the fourth day of the iQFoil World Championship off Lanzarote, the field was split into Gold and Silver Fleet. Winds between 14 and 15 knots from the east, which dropped below ten knots at times, made for tricky conditions. Theresa Steinlein put in a strong performance, climbing up to eleventh place in the overall ranking thanks to top placings in third, fourth and seventh. This puts her within striking distance of making it into the Medal Races if she can build on this today and finish in the top ten.
The bronze medallist from Tokyo, Emma Wilson, shows once again that she is in top form. Although she had one bad race - a 33rd place, which she took as a stripper - she was able to maintain her lead in the remaining races with two more victories, a second place and an eighth place.
The Brit has won eleven of the 15 women's races. Even though she has already secured her place for Paris 2024, Wilson is not letting up. "When you have her around, you know it's going to be a good fight," says second-placed Pilar Lamadrid. The Spaniard improves by one place and moves up to second place with a very consistent day (4-7-6-5 in the first four races). It was also a good day for Israel's Katy Spychakov, who moves up to third place and takes the lead in the national selection hunt for the Olympic Games. Alisa Engelmann also raced very strongly and won two races in the Silver Fleet, she is now in 49th place, while Sophia Meyer also finished in the top ten once and is now 65th.
In the men's race, Luuc van Opzeeland remains in the lead, winning one race and adding to this victory with several top placings. However, the Italian Nicolo Renna was the most consistent today, moving up to second place behind the Dutch leader. In third place is Israeli Tom Reuveny, who is aiming to qualify for the Olympic Games to represent his country in Marseille this summer. Wednesday's high-flyer, Nico Goyard, is now in eighth place.
Sebastian Kördel, on the other hand, finished 25th, 37th, 43rd, 36th and 47th, far away from the leading group and his goal of winning the World Championship title. As a result, he slipped down to 31st place, meaning that a place in the Medal Races is probably out of the question. Kördel has not yet commented on why he has slumped so much after a good start to the World Championships. Fabian Wolf is in 68th place, having finished fifth twice in the Silver Fleet. Jonne Heimann is in 98th place.
A marathon and other course races are scheduled to start today. This will determine which ten riders will go through to the Medal Series on Saturday, where the world championship title will be decided. The races will be broadcast live on the iQFOiL class YouTube channel.
Intermediate result iQFoil-WM Lanzarote
Gents
- Luuc van Opzeeland
- Nicolo Renna
- Tom Reuveny
Ladies
- Emma Wilson
- Pilar Lamadrid
- Katy Spychakov
