Jan 25, 2024
Marina Rubicón hosts the World Championship of the new Olympic windsurfing class iQFOiL, which adds the incentive not only to distribute country places for the Olympic Games, but it is also selective for some national teams.
Marina Rubicón (Lanzarote) is ready to host the first of the Olympic Sailing World Championships to be held this 2024 under the umbrella of the Lanzarote International Regatta. After the celebration of the seventh round of the iQFOiL Games last December, the iQFOiL World Championship will officially start on Friday 26th.
Most of the fleet that will be on the starting line of this World Championship has been settled in the training base of Marina Rubicon for most of the winter. In this sense, the class manager, Gonzalo Costa, emphasizes that "for several years now we have had an iQFOiL Games event here and it is the place of choice for the sailors to train during the winter season. It is a pleasure for us to be able to have the World Championship in the Olympic year in a race course as good as Lanzarote and with an excellent infrastructure, not only on the water but also on land," he says.
What is certain is that among the entries there is no shortage of big names in a class that will make its Olympic debut in Paris. More than 200 windsurfers from over 45 countries from all continents will face a key World Championship, with a country place at stake for each category in the case of European nations and many countries pending to decide their representative in the Olympic event.
Among the 120 competitors in the men's category are the Dutch Luuc van Oppzealnd -vigent world champion-, the German Sebastian Koerdel -second champion-, the Italian Nicolo Renna or the French Nico Goyard, who aim to be among the favorites for the intercontinental title.
In the women's division, with 98 participants, it seems that the powerful Israeli team could once again lead the fleet, with up to five representatives in the world top ten. France is one of the countries for which this World Championship is selective for the team and Helene Noesmoen, although she has not made the podium in previous events, is always a reference. Great Britain's Emma Wilson -world bronze- and Spain's Pilar Lamadrid are also in the betting.
The Lanzarote International Regatta is organized by Marina Rubicón and has the collaboration of the Royal Canarian Sailing Federation, as well as the institutional support of the Tourism Department of the Cabildo de Lanzarote through the European Sports Destination sports product (managed by SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote), Promotur Turismo de Canarias, the Yaiza Town Hall and the private entities Dinghycoach, Naviera Armas and Cabrera Medina (Cicar).