Nia Suardiaz and Maddalena Spanu dominated their sides of the women’s qualifying groups on day two of WingFoil Racing World Cup China.

Even though they notched up a perfect string of wins across their five short-course races, nothing ever felt very certain for the two leading women or the rest of the 113 riders competing out of Pingtan Island.

The racing was divided into a morning and afternoon session, and most of the riders were caught out by the drop in breeze during the lunch break. It’s always a tough decision which size wing to run with, but today was more difficult than usual.


© IWSA media/Robert Hajduk: Meijuan Xiao is the top-performing Chinese rider and improving quickly

Changing up a gear

A few - like Great Britain’s Rafferty Read - rushed back to the beach to change up to a bigger wing for more power in the lighter breeze, but it was a difficult call either way. “This morning on the beach it wasn’t that windy near the shore but by the time you got out on the race course it was breezy,” said Read. “Then in the afternoon it was the opposite, it seemed pretty windy on the beach but the breeze was a lot less on the race course. It was a panic getting back to change to the bigger wing but I finished the day with a second place so I think it was probably a good call.”

Similar for Bastien Escofet who felt he wasn’t going to be able to keep foiling on his 5.0 metre wing. “I decided to come back between race one and two of the second session and change to the 5.5,” said the Frenchman. “I got stuck near the beach because there was no wind and I missed the start of the next race by a minute, but I managed to catch up through the fleet to get a third. Then I won the last race and it was even lighter, so it would have been nice even to have the 6.0 but at least I was OK on the 5.5.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Francesco Cappuzzo racks up a very good set of qualifying scores

Mathis keeps it simple

The race area is quite a long sail out from the beach, so making any change during a session is a brave call. Maybe it’s easier to persevere with one size through the wind range, although that’s not an easy call either. It was what Mathis Ghio decided to do, using his 6.5 metre wing throughout the two sessions. “I was quite happy about my choice of wing,” said Ghio, the double World Champion who won five of his six races in the men’s opening series. “This morning was pretty strong wind so I had to handle it and be very careful with it, but for the afternoon it was the best choice. Probably the 5.7 would have been even better but I wanted to have similar wings to other people in my fleet and not be too far apart from them.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Rafferty Read switched wings and paid a price before reaping his reward

Aside from the wing size conundrum, there was plenty else to think about on the race course. Ghio’s brother, Romain, said he managed to run Mathis pretty close in some heats. “Any tiny mistake and you get punished on these race courses,” said Romain. “I was able to compete with Mathis on the upwind and downwind legs, but on the reaches I tried to push as hard as him but he was still a bit faster.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Romain Ghio happy to get through the day with some good scores

Cappuzzo chills out

Even the usually faultless Ghio came unstuck in one race as he hit a plastic bag and lost the lead to Nicolo Spanu from Italy. “I removed the piece of plastic from my front wing and tried to close the gap to Nicolo but couldn’t quite catch him,” he said. Like Ghio, two others also managed to win five of their six heats and get second in another - Poland’s Kamil Manowiecki and Italy’s Francesco Cappuzzo. “I don’t normally sail the qualifying phase well,” smiled Cappuzzo. “But today I told myself to relax and not get too tense, and it worked. I enjoyed the racing and the results came. It’s been too long since I won a World Cup so it’s good to be going well here in China.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Maddalena Spanu in sparkling form - 5 wins from 5 heats

Wherever they are in the fleet, every rider is working on developing their skills and stepping up to the next level. It’s amazing to think that just two years ago even the best were struggling to race upwind but the standards are continuing to improve at a rapid rate. A huge number of riders from China and other countries like Japan, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei are competing against the best from other continents. Wai Yan Gai from Hong Kong is fifth in the women’s fleet and just behind her is Meijuan Xiao from China.

Every day is a learning day at Wingfoil Racing World Cup and lighter winds for Friday will throw yet another new set of challenges at the riders.

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© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Mathis Ghio continues to set the standard in the men's fleet