Speed surfing: Vrieswijk wins World Championship title at the Prince of Speed - Lemeteyer breaks foil world record

Alongside the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, the Prince of Speed competitions in La Palme, France, are the highlights of the speed season. This year, many pros came straight from the IFCA World Championships, with correspondingly little time for preparation, but the World Championship title that was up for grabs was motivation enough. What was missing was the usual Tramontana. In the first few days, there was only enough wind for a few fun races, which were not included in the official classification. Most of the racing was not on the open sea, but on the Etang de Bages off Narbonne - the wind was too onshore at the actual spot. "I've never experienced La Palme without wind for so long in a row," said Matteo Iachino, describing the unusual situation.

The 2nd of May finally brought conditions for an official race. Amado Vrieswijk took the lead on the foil at 36.67 knots and never relinquished this position. "It's hard to describe how this feels after spending so many hours training, testing and working closely with the brands to make this happen. To see all this work now bearing fruit makes this title very special," wrote Vrieswijk after the competition. Matteo Iachino and Cyril Evrard finished behind him, but the gap was almost a knot. Brendan Lorho won the junior classification with 34.39 knots.

The fastest lady in the field was Justine Lemeteyer, who also set a new women's foil world record of 31.78 knots, according to the organisers. "I came here with the goal of officially breaking the world record, and after the first race I've already achieved that goal! I'm sooo happy!" said the PWA World Champion afterwards.

There were only a few fun races on the Fin, with Nicolas Warembourg being the fastest. Towards the end, there were some more races on the water at the actual spot in La Palme, but the wing was no longer good enough for new records.

• All results under results.worldspeedtour.com

• From building contractor to speed surfer: how Andrea "Principe" Baldini became the "Prince of Speed"