Britain’s Sam Sills proved unbeatable on the first day of the Lanzarote iQFOil Games with a four wins out of four races.
Sills, a double world champion as a junior, took four victories in the yellow fleet and has a four point lead from Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski on 7pts, with Tom Reuveny of Israel in third with 8pts.
In fourth overall, tied on 9pts are Kiran Badlo of Holland and Andrew Brown of Britain. Thomas Goyard of France rounds out the top six with 12pts.
Current world champion, Sebastian Kördel of Germany is back in 17th place but set the highest speed during the races of 30.2 knots (56 km/h).
In the women’s event, Spain’s Pilar Lamadrid, world ranking #1, was also on top form, taking three wins from the four races to take a two point lead.
In second is Sharon Kantor with 5pts and third Katy Spychakov with 8pts, heading a four strong Israel group ahead of Britain’s Islay Watson in fifth place on 17pts. Saskia Sills of Britain is 11th with 32pts.
Alice Read of Britain reached 25.8 knots (47.7 km/h) as the fastest woman on the course in the day’s races. Read is 26th overall.
Sills and the rest of the British Sailing Team have taken advantage of their preparation on the island.
Sills commented . . . “The last year we were training very hard, this is such a new class and we have so many to things to learn all the time. I have been here since December and I absolutely love Lanzarote, I don’t want to go home!”
iQFOil Games 2023 – Men – Leaders after 4 races (84 entries)
1st GBR 60 Sam SILLS -1 1 1 1 – – 3 pts
2nd POL 182 Pawel TARNOWSKI 2 -4 3 2 – – 7 pts
3rd ISR 60 Tom REUVENY 1 6 1 -19 – – 8 pts
4th NED 9 Kiran BADLOE 4 1 4 -12 – – 9 pts
5th GBR 360 Andrew BROWN -13 3 2 4 – – 9 pts
6th FRA 3 Thomas GOYARD 9 2 BFD 1 – – 12 pts
7th POL 23 Maciej RUTKOWSKI 3 -7 6 3 – – 12 pts
8th ISR 253 Yoav COHEN 5 4 -11 3 – – 12 pts
9th NED 36 Max CASTELEIN -14 3 2 11 – – 16 pts
10th FRA 465 Nicolas GOYARD 2 -13 6 8 – – 16 pts
iQFOil Games 2023 – Women – Leaders after 4 races (66 entries)
1st ESP 12 Pilar LAMADRID TRUEBA 1 1 -6 1 – – 3 pts
2nd ISR 390 Sharon KANTOR -2 2 1 2 – – 5 pts
3rd ISR 32 Katy SPYCHAKOV 3 3 2 -13 – – 8 pts
4th ISR 2 Daniela PELEG 4 4 3 -6 – – 11 pts
5th ISR 3 Shahar TIBI -5 5 4 4 – – 13 pts
6th GBR 529 Islay WATSON -9 7 5 5 – – 17 pts
7th FRA 775 Cousin DELPHINE 7 8 9 -16 – – 24 pts
8th CRO 991 Palma ČARGO 8 9 11 -32 – – 28 pts
9th ISR 7 Maya MORRIS 10 10 8 -19 – – 28 pts
10th GER 369 Alisa ENGELMANN 13 12 -19 7 – – 32 pts
11th GBR 956 Saskia SILLS 12 13 7 -46 – – 32 pts
