2025 Dogus Marine Services Formula Wing European Championships - Day 4
by WingFoil Racing World Cup 23 May 20:00 BST
20-24 May 2025
Maddalena Spanu [ITA] couldn't hold off a hard charging Emilia Kosti [GRE] - 2025 Dogus Marine Services Formula Wing European Championships, Day 4 © IWSA media / Robert Hajduk
Leaders stumbled in wildly shifting winds as Friday's racing determined the first medal series competitors in the Dogus Marine Services Formula Wing European Championships.
The last day of the qualifying series was do-or-die for some to get into Saturday's medal series, where only 10 riders from each fleet would get their ticket to the show and the grand final.
Opa Kosti!
The biggest mover of the day was clearly Emilia Kosti of Greece who leap-frogged from third overall in the women's fleet to first, with a remarkably stable 1,1,1,2 in the scattered conditions. She joins the charging Italian Maddalena Spanu who squeaked into the grand final with the Greek, leaving Marta Monge of Italy to fight her way through the semi finals.
"I feel good, finally I did something good in this regatta," said a relaxed Kosti, who had a rough start to the championship. "Previously I made a lot of mistakes. Let's do the same things as today. I'll keep pushing."
For the intense one-day medal series, riders like Kosti and Spanu, gain advantages based on their qualifying series positions. Kosti will enter the grand final with two bonus wins in the first-to-three wins finals. Spanu will have one win.
Monge and Karolina Kluszczynska in third and fourth respectively managed to weather some light wind holes and booked their ticket to the semi finals.
The women share the same series format as the men where fifth and sixth place are seeded in the quarter finals. The top two from that series round out the semifinals, and first and second from the semifinals make it to the Grand Finals.
Seventh through ninth place will race in a repechage series
The final spots in the medal series and four-rider repechage are earned by the woman and man winners of the golden ticket race.
Fastest of the French
Precise puff management was needed to break out of the pack as the qualifying series ended after eight gold fleet races. There was little change in the men's leaderboard, setting up a steel cage match scenario for Mathis Ghio of France and Kamil Manowiecki of Poland who booked their tickets to the grand final.
"Today I wasn't really judging with the different gusts, I wasn't on the good shifts," said a focused Ghio. "Yesterday and today my speed was great. I just need to focus a little more and go with the same mindset." When asked if he was still confident even after some deeper races today he replied, "Yes, of course."
Half the men's medal series is French, bolstered by their sailing federation's coach Benjamin "Baboo" Auge. Bastien Escofet, with a wickedly consistent scoreline of 3,3,1, was the best of the rest heading into the medal series, filling the first semi final spot along with Ernesto De Amicis, the young Italian who made his first Formula Wing medal series.
"I'm usually fighting for the golden ticket," said an elated De Amicis. "Finally I'm in it!"
The men's silver fleet was dominated by U19 riders, with Poland's Szymek Cieslak winning, ahead of the Ukraine's Platon Kuzmenko.
Fairness in the medal series will be facilitated with the class' video refereeing system. There will be no protests and officials will be using live drone and video footage to identify rule breaches and assess penalties.
The top nine for Saturday's medal series are decided. Series racing will be broadcast live, and if the wind gods cooperate, there will be a dramatic golden ticket race first before the medal series begins. A rider in tenth or last has a shot at the medal series and a chance to win the European Championship.
More information here