Luuc van Opzeeland and Emma Wilson continue to lead at the iQFOiL World Championship

1 Febbraio 2024

They maintain their leads after an intense day during which Lanzarote proved why it is a top choice for Olympic sailing.

Marina Rubicón (Lanzarote), January 31, 2024

“We had perfect conditions, between 12 and 16 knots of stable wind, nice waves, it was really perfect on the water.” Recalled Nico Goyard who now holds second place in the iQFOiL World Championship which runs until Saturday in Marina Rubicón, Lanzarote. The 212 participants sailed five more races today, this time in a course race format which saw many position changes through the day. But Holland’s Luuc van Opzeeland and GBR’s Emma Wilson still lead the Men’s and Women’s fleets respectively.

Defending world champ van Opzeeland did not quite manage the same level of consistency as his perfect opening day, landing a 1-8-1-15-2 but he discards today’s worst results, so he leads for the second consecutive day.

“It’s a tricky location, especially today. It’s beautiful, but we were far out onto the ocean and the wind was shifty between the islands, in the middle of the channel, but it’s fun and interesting. I’m just trying to do my best trying to win the event; I did my job well for the qualifying and that’s the main focus for this week,” says van Opzeeland.

Nico Goyard, the best of the day

Five races and five victories, despite being unwell, Nico Goyard was the outstanding performer in the men’s fleet today and promoted himself to second place.

“I had a really good day, I won the five races in my fleet, I couldn’t hope for more especially because I am sick, this morning I threw up in the water so I’m super happy I could do this despite my illness, I just hope I’ll be fine for the finals,” recalled the Frenchman.

With the racing area located halfway between Marina Rubicón and the island of Lobos, racing really was intense today, with the entire fleet pushing the starts, meaning multiple general calls.

Wilson consolidates her lead and Lamadrid remains on the podium

The British rider Emma Wilson was outstanding again today. Although yesterday she started with three victories out of five races, today Wilson gave her rivals no chances and managed to win all five races held so maintaining her six-point advantage over the second-place Israeli Sharon Kantor who has three first places, two seconds and a fifth.

From this world championships the Israeli team will select its Olympic Games representative, so they have four top sailors here and all are lying inside the women’s top ten after this third day of competition.

“I had a really nice battle with Katy [Spychakov], Pilar [Lamadrid], and Palma [Cargo]. It was super nice and really fun in the water,” said Kantor at the end of the day.

Lamadrid added a first, two seconds, a third and a disqualification for premature start under a black flag. She is in third place, only four points behind Kantor.

The Final Series, live
Starting tomorrow at 12:00 local time the fleet begins the Final Series, so it will sail divided into a gold group – with the first half of the table – and a silver group – for the second half.

Starting tomorrow and until Saturday, the last day of the iQFOiL World Championship, the races can be followed live on the iQFOiL class YouTube channel.

The Lanzarote International Regatta is organized by Marina Rubicón with the collaboration of the Royal Canarian Sailing Federation, as well as the institutional support of the Tourism area of the Lanzarote Cabildo through the sports product European Sports Destination (managed by SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote), Promotur Turismo de Canarias, the Yaiza City Council and the private entities Dinghycoach, Naviera Armas and Cabrera Medina (Cicar).

Top 3 after Day 3

iQFOiL Male