The forecast for Day 6 of the 2026 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt looked marginal on paper, but it still provided enough wind to allow two more Foil Slalom elimination results to be gained in 9-15 knots of breeze, which saw most of the fleet reaching for their big foils and medium sails. The twists and turns at the top of the event rankings continued as Fabian Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails / AEON Foil System) wrestled back the top spot after claiming his third bullet of the week in Elimination 7.
Foil Slalom
Matteo Iachino (Starboard / NeilPryde) started the day with a 1.7 point lead over Fabian Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails / AEON Foil System) after winning Elimination 5 at the end of yesterday and the Italian then extended that advantage to three points after claiming a clear cut victory in Elimination 6. At this point Iachino threatened to power away from the pack having not finished outside the top two once.
However, Wolf had different ideas and the home favourite delivered a decisive blow in Elimination 7 by earning his first bullet since Elimination 3, and third overall, after doing brilliantly to hold off Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / North Sails / Z Foils). With the second discard coming into play after the completion of Elimination 7, that allows the German to drop two fourth places, which sees him leapfrog Iachino to regain the event lead by just 0.3 of a point with a couple of days to go.
Meanwhile, Iachino could only record a sixth in Elimination 7 after a rare poor start, but he would’ve still finished the day on 7.4 points unless he had managed to win the last elimination too. It once again shows the power of a bullet in comparison to a second place and it will now be a direct battle between Iachino and Wolf for the event title.
Besides the top two, Amado Vrieswijk is the only other sailor to boast a 100% qualifying record for the Winners’ Finals as the Bonairean cemented his place in third after another solid day consisting of a fifth and a second.
Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / North Sails) remains in fourth place, but loses a little bit of ground to Vrieswijk after a ninth and a third today. The Frenchman is now 5.6 points off of third place and will be ruing that yesterday's second semifinal of Elimination 6 was cancelled as he was winning the heat at that point and these differences can have huge impacts overall.
After a slow start on the opening day of racing, Bruno Martini (WeOne | S2Maui / Z Foils) continued his brilliant recovery today. After the first day Martini found himself in a lowly 18th, but steadied the ship yesterday to climb into ninth. At the close of play the Italian is currently ranked fifth after claiming fourth in Elimination 6 and seventh in Elimination 7.
Elsewhere, John Soukos (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails / AEON Foil System) falls one place to sixth after missing out on both Winners’ Finals today. The Greek discards both results from Day 6, but is still on course for a solid result.
Benoit Merceur (Starboard / Severne Sails / Z Foils) gains three places from the overnight rankings with the Frenchman climbing from tenth into seventh. Merceur recorded his best result of the event thus far in Elimination 6 - third - before winning the B-Final of Elimination 7 to secure ninth place.
Meanwhile, fellow countryman, William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / AEON Foil System) is just one point and one place behind Merceur in eighth, Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde) drops from joint sixth to ninth and Noah Vinther (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / AEON Foil System) completes the top ten.
Nico Prien (JP / NeilPryde) enjoyed his best day on the water so far as the German started the day with a tenth before signing off with a solid fourth place, which sees Prien ranked twelfth.
On the opening day of racing Sem Stroosma earned his best result to date in an elimination on the World Tour - fifth in Elimination 2 - but then endured a torrid run which saw him fail to make the top sixteen in each of the next four races. Today though he set the record straight as he bounced back with a fifth place in Elimination 7.
The forecast for Friday looks very light and realistically it’s likely to end up being a Lay Day for all fleets, but the Foil Slalom fleet will still have a skippers’ meeting at 11am (GMT+2). Then looking slightly further ahead, Saturday could still produce more racing with 11-17 knot south-southwest winds, or even possibly some float and ride wave sailing with a new bump of swell also expected to arrive with it.
All the Foil Slalom Winners' Finals sailed so far can be watched on our YouTube Channel.
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You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Sylt— including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Current Ranking Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Foil Slalom
*After 7 Eliminations (2 Discards)
1st Fabian Wolf (GER | Starboard / Severne Sails / AEON Foil System)
2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / NeilPryde)
3rd Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / North Sails / Z Foils)
4th Pierre Mortefon (FRA | FMX Racing / North Sails)
5th Bruno Martini (ITA | WeOne / S2Maui / Z Foils)
6th John Soukos (GRE | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails / AEON Foil System)
7th Benoit Merceur (FRA | Starboard / Severne Sails / Z Foils)
8th William Huppert (FRA | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / AEON Foil System)
9th Maciek Rutkowski (POL | JP / NeilPryde)
10th Noah Vinther (DEN | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / AEON Foil System)
Current Ranking Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Freestyle
1st Lennart Neubauer (GRE | Starboard / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Dieter Van der Eyken (BEL | Severne Windsurfing)
3rd Takumi Moriya (JPN | Severne Windsurfing)
4th Balz Müller (SUI | Severne Windsurfing)
5th Jacopo Testa (ITA | WeOne | GUNSAILS / AL360)
5th Yentel Caers (BEL | JP / NeilPryde)
5th Steven Van Broeckhoven (BEL | WeOne | GUNSAILS)
5th Takuma Sugi (JPN)