Seventh place for Mallorcan Nacho Baltasar in the iQFOiL International Games

It is the first important international event of the year of olympic windsurfing.

The international iQFOiL season kicked off last week in Marina Rubicón with the Lanzarote iQFOiL Games, one of the reference events of the olympic windsurf calendar. The event reunited 101 athletes (61 men and 40 women) of around 30 countries, in an already consolidated scenery as a strategic enclave for international preparation. 

From that first session of regattas, on Saturday 6th, the level of competition remained clear. In this debut, the member of the RFEV preolympic team, Andrea Torres, from the Club Nàutic s'Arenal, was the best Spaniard of the day, achieving the provisional eighth place after signing two third partial places, while the male team began its race with an improvement margin in an extremely competitive fleet. 

Throughout the slalom and course racing sessions, the Spanish male preolympic team was gaining positions. Nacho Baltasar, from the Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita, went from less to more until getting between the best eight and accessing the Medal Series of Wednesday, last day, in which wind marked the rhythm of the day.  

After waiting hours, the Regattas Committee achieved establishing an area near the Papagayo Beach with light wind from the North, around seven knots. 

In the fourths of male final, Baltasar was left outside of the fight for medals in an adjusted race that gave the option to French Yun Pouliquen and Adrien Mestre. The Balearic finished finally in a meritory seventh position, signing off a great value result in the season start and confirming their competitiveness in the international head group. 

On his behalf, Bernat Tomás, from Club Nàutic s'Arenal, continued adding international experiences, ending in half of a fleet composed of 61 windsurfers. 

In the female fleet, Spaniards Pilar Lamadrid and Andrea Torres stayed in the fight for the Top 10 for a good part of the championship, ina qualifying led since the beginning by the world champion Emma Wilson. 

The definitive drop of wind obliged to cancel the rest of the session, leaving the general defied with results added throughout the week. 

British Finn Hawkins was crowned winner in male category, accompanied on the podium by French Nico Goyard and Yun Pouliquen. In female, Emma Wilson, world champion and olympic bronze, took the final triumph, with Israel's Sharon Kantor in second place and Italian Marta Maggetti, olympic champion in Paris 2024, third. 

Lanzarote, once more, showed that it is one of the key sceneries for the development of world iQFOiL and another strategic point in the preparation of the Spanish team.