The first official iQFoiL Youth and Junior World Championships are set to take place this weekend at Lake Garda, Italy. 271 young racers from 23 nations are ready to fight it out on the racecourse.
With 4 official World Titles up for grabs between Youth (u19) and Junior (u17), a staggering number of 271 young Sailors from 23 nations signed up for this first Youth and Junior World Championships. The future of Olympic windsurfing certainly looks bright with such a large pool of young athletes signing up to prove themselves on the racecourse on Italy’s famous sailing venue Lago di Garda.
We are stoked to see so many young athletes excited about windsurfing and can’t wait to see the first winners of this new class and meet the new youth riders!
Here is what the first day had in store for our young guns at the Youth and Junior iQFoiL Worlds:
DAY 1:
The first races of the championships started as scheduled at 9:00 am. The youth men and women were the first ones on the water to kick off the competition.
The boys are divided into two different fleets, yellow and blue. From the third day of racing on, they’ll be divided into gold and silver (the first half of the fleet in gold and the second half silver). The first half of the fleet will hold the fight for the title.
The girls are racing in a single fleet because of the smaller number of participants. The schedule for this morning was perfectly accurate due to the favourable wind conditions. All youth fleets completed 3 course races back-to-back with an average wind speed of 15 knots and choppy water. When the wind speed reaches 15 knots, the Course Race format lasts around 15 minutes.
“Today, the racing course was very technical; it was fundamental to make great starts. As well as the start, it was important to make the right choices based on the wind, to find ourselves on the right side of the course where the pressure was better. The overtakes happened a lot on the lay lines, which need to be super precise to get faster to the mark”
Manon Pianazza – leading the provisional rankings.
Here is a video from the first racing day on the Lago:
Here is how you can follow the iQFOiL Youth and Junior Worlds:
Official event page: Results, Photos and more
More action on the official iQ FOiL Youth & Junior Instagram
Daily updates from the event site on our Instagram
Interested to find out more about the iQFOiL Youth and Junior Equipment? Click here.
Interested to find out more about the Olympic pathway? Click here.
