On a day of high pressure - in all senses - and drama in all the Medal series, team power and individual brilliance produced some of the closest board Finals in Hyères history.
The four Medal Series Finals for iQFoil and Formula Kite unfolded in a light but, crucially, stable south-easterly wind of 6-7 knots for the first time this week. For some of the pack who had been chasing standout leaders it presented a golden opportunity to unseat those who had been leading, sometimes all week in bigger winds. In the men’s events, Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi in the men’s Kite, followed by China’s Kun Bi in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing, took their chance; in the women’s China’s Wan Li in the women’s Kite and Tamar Steinberg in the women’s iQFoil held on, just.
Formula Kite (men’s and women’s kite)Women (22 entries)
1st - Wan Li (CHN)
2nd - Jingyue Chen (CHN)
3rd - Lauriane Nolot (FRA)
A closely fought week deserved a closely fought final series and it got one, with drama in the Grand Final as China’s Wan Li won the third race of the Grand Final to take gold. Li has now won both rounds of the new five-regatta Sailing Grand Slam.
France’s local favourite, Lauriane Nolot, back in competitive action for the first time since her silver medal in Paris 2024, faced the three Chinese boards after battling through the semi-finals. As the top board, Li carried forward a point, into the Grand Final with two needed for victory, but her compatriot, Jingyue Chen, who had been third overall in the qualifying and then won the semi-final, won the first race. There was more excitement in the second race as Nolot won, before Li bounced back and won the third race to take gold. Chen was third ahead of Nolot in fourth in that race to secure silver. Only the fourth board, China’s Si Wang, did not win a race.
Wan Li (CHI): “The wind was very light today and it was super hard sometimes to maintain the kite in the air. I learned a lot about how to kite competitively in these kinds of conditions. Winning here is a great outcome, there were a lot of good competitors to race against this week!”
Lauriane Nolot (FRA): “It was extremely intense with really complicated wind, it kept swinging around in strength and direction. It was a little stressful too because I found myself swimming with my sail in the water because there were big air pockets. I'm super happy to be on the podium, it's great for a comeback! It was also about getting used to my new gear, but I got the feeling back as the week went on. From the technical side it was a success, especially since the Chinese trained all winter while I was recovering from the operation on my foot. And really everything went well this week, I didn't have any pain. I was also in a good frame of mind because I'm at home, my family was very supportive. Now, I'm heading for the European Championships in Turkey after a week's break. The objective will be to make a podium, to continue to improve, the ultimate goal being the World Championships at the end of the year.”
Men (60 entries)
1st - Riccardo Pianosi (ITA)2nd - Max Maeder (SGP)
3rd - Gian Stragiotti (SUI)
Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi enjoyed the light winds to upset the order of the week and win both races in the Grand Final to take gold. Singapore’s Max Maeder, the 18-year-old double world champion, the winner of SOF 2022 at the age of 15 and a bronze medalist at Paris 2024, had swept the first round of the Sailing Grand Slam earlier this month and if not quite so dominant here in topping the qualifying, was still a class apart. Maeder started the Grand Final with one point needing just one win for victory, but Pianosi, 20, produced a virtuoso performance. Switzerland’s 17-year-old Gian Stragiotti was also well pleased with his day’s work after coming through the semi-finals and finishing second in the second Grand Final race to secure the bronze medal.
Riccardo Pianosi (ITA) : “It’s a very nice day in the water! We had very light wind, but in the end I managed to win two races and takes the victory. I was feeling good and I’m pretty happy with this result and now focus on the next. It’s my first time winning this event - I never the made the podium here. Next it’s the European Championships in two and a half weeks.”
iQFOiL (men’s & women’s windsurfing)Women (41 entries)
1st - Tamar Steinberg (ISR)
2nd - Zheng Yang (CHN)
3rd - Sharon Kantor (ISR)
Tamar Steinberg, the dominant boarder all week in this dominant Israel women’s windsurfing team, won the second Grand Final race to seal gold after she had pumped herself out of the first race to let China’s Zheng Yang in with a chance. But she bounced back strongly to win the second. Israel’s Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist, Sharon Kantor was second in the second final race to take bronze. Israel finished, as they had spent the week, with five of the top seven.
Steinberg and the Israel team were not at the first round of the Sailing Grand Slam, but it was a second silver medal for Yang.
Tamar Steinberg (ISR): “Today we had light wind so it was really hard physically, you need to pump a lot in these conditions, which I think is really good, you can really see the level of the fleet and push to be better. It was really hard racing; the first one I fell off the foil, I was leading, had a good start, pumped a lot, but didn’t manage my energy well enough, got too exhausted and fell off the foil. So I needed to get myself mentally ready for the next one, I just kind of relaxed, got the lactate out of my blood and in the second one I knew I wanted to go for it to end the day here and not have anymore races. I had a good start, managed to be first on the reach and then it was just a battle with the other girls, pumping trying to get speed and I won!We have a very a good team, we all train together in the national team and compete together, so I’m really happy for the team we have and it brings results, so it’s good.”
Men (76 entries)
1st - Kun Bi (CHN)
2nd - Grae Morris (AUS)
3rd - Louis Pignolet (FRA)
As earlier in the men’s windsurfing, China’s Kun Bi took full advantage of the light winds to overcome the dominant force of the week - and month - Australia’s Grae Morris. The result throws open the Sailing Grand Slam, after Morris won the first round. Bi had only managed tenth place.
Morris, the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist, had been the standout sailor of the week in bigger conditions, but Bi showed pumping power and patience to win both races. Bi had to come from behind to win the second raced and France’s Louis Pignolet was second in both to take bronze.
Kun Bi (CHI): Kun Bi (CHN) "Very tired! There’s a lot of pressure coming from all the top athletes racing together. But I transferred that pressure into my ambitions and goals, that allowed me to do it. There was pretty light wind today, this is to our advantage for the Chinese team in these conditions. So, I just kept pumping and pumping. I was pretty confident [at the start of the day] with these conditions, especially in these conditions. But I just focussed on myself, not too much on the competitors, if you focus on your competitors you can lose your way.
In the first race was I in front from the beginning, but in the second I had to show much more patience during the race. I only got in front from when we were rounding the second mark - so about halfway. Whether it is the iQFoil or the Kite we have the whole team cooperating. We’ve been having some great weeks, there’s a lot of us and the whole team work together.”