The world’s number one in the international ranking of the iQ Foil class is preparing for the season on the island together with more than 170 windsurfers
For several seasons now, the Marina Rubicón Marina has become the epicentre of Olympic sailing during the first months of the year. The teams, from more than 30 countries, are enjoying the perfect conditions the island offers for their demanding preparation.
Among the more than 170 iQ Foil class sailors currently training on the island is Spain’s Pilar Lamadrid, currently ranked first in the international iQ Foil class rankings and winner of last year’s iQ FOiL Games Lanzarote.
“In Lanzarote you can windsurf every day – with good wind conditions and 25ºC” – Pilar Lamadrid
The Spanish windsurfer reached the top of the rankings in June last year, holding the position with 822 points from six regattas: fifth in the 2022 World Championship and fourth in the 2021 World Championship, runner-up in the Palma World Cup, victories in the iQ FOiL International Games in Lanzarote and the New Year Race Bahía de Cádiz, and eighth place in the European Championship.
Lamadrid has enjoyed spectacular progress in this discipline, to which she came from the RSX class and which she calls “a natural evolution of the sport”, giving her the opportunity now to be in the fight to participate in the Olympic Games.
“Lanzarote offers the ideal conditions” – Lamadrid
Pilar says she feels “very comfortable” in Lanzarote because it offers perfect conditions for training in winter. In the first place, this is due to the thermal sensation of the island’s waters, because “it’s not the same to fall into water at 25ºC, as it is to fall into water at 10 or 15ºC”.
And secondly, because of the wind conditions, as “there are very few days when it hasn’t been possible to sail”, an important requirement for the teams to be able to successfully complete their preparation for the start of the Olympic campaign.
70% of the women’s iQ Foil class are training in Lanzarote, so this year Lanzarote’s IQ Games will see competition at a much higher level than last season. Lamadrid assures us that “the first competition of the year will be a good test for the world championship because almost the entire fleet is training here, and we will be taking this competition very seriously”.
All her work this season will be focused on achieving a good position at the World Championships to be held in August in Holland in order to secure a place to represent Spain at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
IQ Foil Games Lanzarote 2023
The second edition of the world circuit iQ FOiL Games Lanzarote will be held from 23rd to 28th of January, with spectacular races that can be followed from the dock of Marina Rubicón or from the boat that the organisation makes available to spectators each day so that they can experience the adrenaline of the competition from the sea.
Among the Olympic athletes, Thomas Goyard, current silver medallist in Tokyo, and his brother Nicolas Goyard, winner of the last edition and one of the great figures of the sport, will be competing again. In the women’s category, the favourite will be Pilar Lamadrid, although she will have to compete against powerful teams from Great Britain, Holland, France, China and Germany.
