Mathis Ghio was beaten by a few riders on day four of the WingFoil Racing World Cup Turkiye, but has managed to hold on to the yellow bib for the medal series climax on Sunday.
- Six heats in the finals to decide which nine riders get into Sunday’s medal series
- Rattotti, Tomasi and Klusznzynska among today’s race winners
- Ghio and Suardiaz take pole position and yellow bibs for medal series climax
- But . . . revolutionary ‘Golden Ticket’ format means ANYONE can still win overall
Across the six races the top-seeded Frenchman won just one of them, an unusually low hit rate for Ghio.
In the lighter-wind morning session, Luca Franchi from Italy took the first win followed by two for Frenchman Julien Rattotti. A lot of riders had been caught out by the sight of breeze that seemed quite strong but proved to be much less in reality.
With the breeze blowing between 8 to 12 knots, Ghio admitted that he would prefer more breeze for the afternoon session. And so it proved, with the wind kicking in at around 18 knots. This time Alessando Tomasi took two of the three bullets in the windy afternoon session, with Ghio taking the other.
POLAND JOINS SPAIN IN WOMEN’S FINAL
Nia Suardiaz lost a race to Poland’s Karolina Kluszczynska after the Spanish rider lost her way on the course. “I didn’t notice that they had moved the course,” said Suardiaz. “So Karolina got past me but I managed to catch up the others and got second, so not too bad,” said the Spanish rider who has dominated this week.
Having built up a sufficient buffer on the leaderboard, Suardiaz sat out the final two races of the afternoon to preserve energy for Sunday’s medal series, when she will wear the leader’s yellow jersey.
Who would join Suardiaz in the four-rider final could only be decided after a protest between Kluszczynska and the 2023 world champion from Italy, Maddalena Spanu.
With Spanu found to be in the wrong in a port-starboard situation, she was disqualified from a race that she won. This moved Kluszczynska up into second place which means the Polish rider takes her place in Sunday’s final alongside Suardiaz.
On the final day is the Golden Ticket race, a long distance race for the whole fleet, except for the top nine riders who have already booked their place in the 10-rider medal series. Whoever wins the Golden Ticket race earns that missing 10th spot in the final series.
LEADING RESULTS MEN (38 entries)
1. Mathis Ghio FRA 14.6 pts
2. Julien Rattotti FRA 19.4 pts
3. Alessandro Tomasi ITA 22.0 pts
LEADING RESULTS WOMEN (13 entries)
1. Nia Suardiaz ESP 14.0 pts
2. Karolina Kluszczynska POL 30.0 pts
3. Manon Pianazza ITA 31.0 pts
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