iQFoil International Games #4 at Circolo Surf Torbole - Day 1
by Elena Giolai 21 Sep 19:12 BST
iQFoil International Games #4 in Torbole, Day 1 © Elena Giolai
At Circolo Surf Torbole the last event of this season, which has been all about foil and in particular the iQFoil Olympic class, has begun; and it is precisely with this class that the 2022 edition of the Circolo chaired by Armando Bronzetti closes with event number 4 of the International Games, a sort of World Cup stage.
The first races began on Wednesday 21 on a beautiful sunny day with a southerly wind of 12 to 18 knots, which made it possible to complete five course races for both the men's and women's categories.
Many non-Continental nations were present with Honk Kong, China (which has been training at the club for at least a couple of months), Thailand, Aruba, Brazil, Korea, Australia, together with Algeria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Switzerland, Slovakia and Sweden.
Italy was absent in the women's category, as were some leading athletes, who with their respective federations are training in Brest, the venue of the next IQFoil World Championships scheduled from 14 to 22 October. The Garda Trentino therefore presented itself in dazzling form despite the beginning of autumn: 13-18 knots of 'now' are not so taken for granted in this period.
An intense programme was completed on this first day with five races and Italy immediately in the lead among the men with Daniele Benedetti, who with five victories took the lead ahead of China's Kun BI (4-2-6-3-7) and Australia's Grae Morris (14-5-2-5-6), the first under-21.
Italy follows with the Circolo Surf Torbole pair Manolo Modena (second under 21) and Jacopo Renna, protagonist of a 2-3 in the last two races of the day. Only one point separates the third overall from Jacopo Renna, fifth. Germany's Engelmann leads among the women (6-1-2-3-1), just one point ahead of Czech Barbora Svikova (first under-21). Third and fourth place goes to China's Huang and Zheng, tied on points between them. The event will end on Sunday 25 September.
Full standings can be found here...