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Lanzarote Foil Challenge 2. Vanessa Marrero

LANZAROTE FOIL CHALLENGE 2022

02/02/2022
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The 2022 Lanzarote Foil Challenge is set to take place on February 6th. Here is the official press release from the second edition of the event in which more than 30 athletes will take part, covering 200 kilometers in 9 hours!

Lanzarote, 1st February

Lanzarote Foil Challenge 1. Vanessa Marrero

“A press conference was held this morning to announce the second edition of the Lanzarote Foil Challenge, which will take place on the 6th of February and will once again go around the island of Lanzarote covering more than 200 kilometers in 9 hours on a surfboard, in both the Windsurf Foil and Kite Foil classes.

The event held at the Club Santa Rosa, in Costa Teguise, was attended by Mr. Alfredo Mendoza, sports councilor of the Cabildo de Lanzarote; Mr. Gerardo Rodríguez, sports councilor of the Town Hall of Teguise; Mr. Héctor Fernández, managing director and CEO of the Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote (SPEL); Mr. Julio Romero, President of the Real Club Náutico de Arrecife, and Mr. Esteban Nieto, Vice President of Los Charcos Windsurfing Club.

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Lanzarote is looking to host another year of this regatta organized by the Los Charcos Windsurfing Club together with the Canary Islands Sailing Federation, the Real Club Náutico de Arrecife and Marina Rubicón, which has established itself as one of the most attractive international events for athletes.

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After the success of the previous edition, held last May, this time there are more than 30 registered participants, highlighting the presence of last year’s winner, the Brazilian Mateus Isaac, among other international figures, who will be repeating alongside new famous challengers such as the French Nicolas Goyard, current PWA and IQ Foil world champion, and Antoine Albeau, the most successful windsurfer of this century, with 25 world titles in different categories, as well as sailors from other countries such as England, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Israel and South Korea.

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In the Kite Foil category, the presence of Iker Martínez, double gold medalist in 49er in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, as well as leader of the Volvo Ocean Race on the Telefónica team in 2005-2006 and 2008-2009, who is now involved in the new Kite Foil class, a new Olympic discipline that will be launched in Paris in 2024, generating great expectations.

 

The athletes which have competed in the first edition have loved the event. Mateus Isaac, last year’s winner, said “I’m really happy to be back. I won the race last year, so I think I know a little more than the guys that didn’t do it. It’s definitely hard, it’s very challenging, but it’s nice. It’s the hardest and longest race I’ve done in my life”.

The 25 times windsurfing world champion, Antoine Albeau, recently arrived in Lanzarote, because according to him, “in France now it´s really cold, so I didn´t have the chance to train a lot. It’s windy everyday so it’s really nice and also to meet all the guys. I train a lot with the French team and also with Mateus, so it’s good to be back on the water”.

Lena Erdil, member of the German Olympic windsurfing team, said “Lanzarote is a really nice place to train IQFoil. We have all kind of winds, so I really enjoy training here. This is the first race this long and so extreme, and I’m really excited to take part this year. I never challenge myself to so many kilometers in just one day in open water”.

More participants and novelties in this second edition

This year, as a novelty, the regatta will have 4 categories in windsurfing, Open, Local and IQFoil, male and female. The latter will also be an Olympic class at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In fact, last week, for the first time, International iQFoil Games 2022 took place on the island, where more than 100 athletes from more than 20 different countries competed.

The route of the Lanzarote Foil Challenge will be the same as in the previous edition, consisting of 6 legs that go from Playa Blanca to El Golfo to reach La Santa in the second section and reach La Graciosa in the third. The fourth section will finish in Costa Teguise, continue to Playa Honda and finish where the race began in Marina Rubicón.

The regatta will have a television channel which will broadcast all the starts and finishes, as well as the most eventful legs. It will also be possible to follow the regatta with an application to see the live speeds and positions of all the sailors, as well as through the regattas website and social media.

Lanzarote Foil Challenge will be sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Canary Islands Government through Promotur-Turismo de Canarias and the Cabildo de Lanzarote through the Ministry of Tourism (Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote (SPEL-Turismo de Lanzarote)) and the Island Sports Service; as well as the Sports Department of the Town Hall of Teguise. Also collaborating are Marina Rubicón, Hotel Los Zocos Impressive Lanzarote, Cicar Canary Islands Car and Club Santa Rosa, among others.

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The Lanzarote Foil Challenge will once again be an opportunity to show Lanzarote as a destination for the practice of water sports, promoting the tourist value of the island, which in recent years has been the place chosen by athletes from all over the world to train for international championships and the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Lanzarote is, once again, the venue for the only regatta of its kind in the world, as there is nothing else like it in sailing with such physical demands; the first ultra-marathon regatta on a board covering more than 200 kilometers in about 9 hours non-stop around the island.”

 

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