Lanzarote saw the first races of the 2024 iQFOiL world championships Tuesday on the waters of Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
The men completed four slalom races, the women raced five.
Holland’s reigning world champion Luuc van Opzeeland is the first provisional leader while GBR’s Emma Wilson is the first women’s fleet leader.
Emma Wilson, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, is one of top contenders for this World Championship and today she showed why. The Team GBR racer took four of the five slalom races that the women’s contested and was third in the other.
Spain’s Pilar Lamadrid is six points behind after a solid 2-2-(3)-1-2. She is pitching hard to become the Spanish representative in Marseille 2024.
Britain’s Islay Watson (3-1-(19)-15-11) posted one race win and is 14th overall.
With four wins from four races Luuc van Opzeeland made a perfect start to his title defence.
In second is Germany’s Sebastian Koerdel not far behind and tied for second on three points with three wins in his group, the same tally as third-placed Kiwi Joshua Armit.
Britain’s Samuel Sills is 20th, Finn Hawkins 22nd and Andy Brown 34th.
The program for Wednesday, is due to see races on the regatta arena located in front of the Marina Rubicón breakwater, and depending on the conditions, slalom or Race Course events can be programmed.
