iQFoil World Cup: Waiting game for Kördel and Co.

Initially it looked like the World Championships would kick off as planned yesterday, with the 94 women and 118 men taking to the water shortly after 11.00am. "In the early morning there were quite good conditions for a slalom with a breeze of 7 to 8, sometimes 9 knots, but unfortunately the wind died just before the start of the countdown so we couldn't race. The wind disappeared and that was it," explained regatta organiser Ewa Jodlowska.

The riders remained on standby for several hours and the wind was closely monitored by the competition organisers. It increased in strength from time to time, but never quite reached the minimum before finally subsiding again. At 4.00 pm, Jodlowska announced the postponement to today, Tuesday. The forecasts remain borderline, however, and it doesn't look like there will be more wind until Wednesday.

Kördel's goal: the world championship title

Sebastian Kördel, world champion in 2022 and last year's runner-up, has clear goals for the World Championships: "I'm trying to get my title back this year, six months before the Games and here in beautiful Lanzarote." As we all know, Germany's place at the Olympic Games is already secured, and the World Championships are the first of three events for the DSV's internal nomination of the actual starter. Kördel has spent a long time on site preparing for the start of the Olympic year: "I've already spent a lot of time here. I was here for training two months ago and really enjoyed it."

Kiran Badloe, Olympic champion in Tokyo in the former Olympic windsurfing class RS:X, is facing the same scenario. The Dutch team has many good windsurfers, including the current world champion Luuc van Opzeeland. "It's a tough nut to crack," admits Badloe. "We have a lot of good guys, it will be an intense week and hopefully we can extend the fight to Palma (the regatta Trofeo Princesa Sofia, editor's note.), which is our last trial event."

In addition to the iQFoil experts, a number of PWA pros will also be in Lanzarote, including Maciek Rutkowski, Johan Soe, Ethan Westera, Thomas and Nicolas Goyard, Will McMillan and Delphine Cousin.

Under 2024iqworldslanzarote.sailti.com for all the information and results. In addition, the races from 1 to 3 February will be broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the iQFOiL class transferred.

Also interesting:

• Fabian Wolf on the iQFoil material: "Keep it tight and don't think too much!"
• Olympia 2024: iQFoil in self-experiment - meeting with the monster
• iQFoil: Measurement and opening before the start of the World Cup
• iQFoil: Theresa Steinlein wants to represent Germany at the 2024 Olympics
• iQFoil young talents: Sophia Meyer and Lenny Friemel with top results at the World Youth Championships