Manowiecki leads after eight-race tactical test in Urla foil surfing
Manowiecki took the provisional lead in Urla after eight races, while Tomasi, Ghio and de Amicis survived the grind better than Herbert.
Kamil Manowiecki took command after a punishing eight-race Day 3 in Urla, where flat water, a shifty breeze and back-to-back heats turned the WingFoil Racing World Cup Türkiye into a test of speed, recovery and decision-making. The Polish rider moved to the top of the provisional standings by staying cleaner through the day’s constant resets, while the morning block of four races and the four more after lunch exposed who could keep pace when fatigue started to bite.
The regatta, held May 19-23 at Urla Pro Sailing Academy in Urla, İzmir, carried 300 World Ranking points and €10,000 in prize money, and the stakes were obvious in the way the front of the fleet kept changing shape. Alessandro Tomasi was the sharpest qualifier in the group phase, winning six of his eight heats and finishing third in the other two, a run that showed how hard he was to beat when he got off the line cleanly and stayed on the correct side of the shifts. Mathis Ghio also clawed back into contention after a slower start, proving that one rough opening block did not have to ruin the day if the fitness was there to survive the volume.
Sean Herbert learned the other side of that equation. The early regatta leader slipped to fourth overall after results that included an eighth and a ninth, the kind of bad races that hurt twice in a format this compressed because there is no long break to reset. In Urla, one missed start or one poor lane choice could bury a heat before the first downwind leg was over.
Ernesto de Amicis said the day felt like a comeback because the racing got more windy and more physical as it went on. He delivered top-three finishes in six of the eight races and stayed with the same setup all day, a 7-meter wing paired with a Chubanga 530 foil, which he said gave him a useful range from about 6 to 20 knots. That kind of gear discipline mattered as much as raw fitness, because the wrong foil or wing choice in a shifting Aegean breeze could cost boat lengths before the first mark.
Freddie Strawson summed up the mood from the beach: windy, sunny and tiring. That was the day’s real story, and it is why Urla felt less like a simple fleet race and more like a survival drill. The World Cup Series is a World Sailing Special Event that crowns the annual Open WingFoil Racing World Champion, and this stop also served as a warm-up for the Formula Wing World Championships scheduled for Istanbul on August 10-15. Fenerbahçe sports club and Pro Sailing Academy Urla have helped drive that momentum, in a country where wingfoiling has surged hardest around İzmir and Urla.
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