WingFoil Racing World Cup heads to Urla, Turkiye in May 2026
Urla already has 40 riders on a 150-spot start list, with 300 ranking points and 10,000 euros at stake. Ghio and Suardiaz return to the venue that crowned both in 2024.
Forty riders are already on the books for Urla, a clear early signal that the WingFoil Racing World Cup stop in Turkiye is drawing real depth long before the first start horn. The field is capped at 150 competitors, split evenly between 75 men and 75 women, and that balance matters in a class built around equal access and head-to-head racing. With late fees beginning today and a waiting list already listed, the entry sheet still has room to change, but the shape of the event is taking form fast.
The prize money is 10,000 euros, but the bigger currency is ranking leverage. Urla is worth 300 world-ranking points, enough to matter for riders trying to protect a lead, climb back after a missed result or force themselves into the heart of the Formula Wing standings. The individual entry fee is 250 euros, which keeps the event squarely in line with the circuit’s professional but still accessible setup. For an open class that sells itself on Olympic-style racing on a level playing field, Urla offers exactly the kind of test that can separate polished race management from raw speed on the water.
The venue adds to the case. The Urla Pro Sailing Academy in Izmir gives the fleet a home base with the launch, race area and local support needed for a World Cup stop that wants to look and feel bigger than a simple registration page. That is part of why the series keeps returning to sites like this: the WingFoil Racing World Cup Series is billed by the International Wing Sports Association as a World Sailing Special Event that crowns the annual Open WingFoil Racing World Champion, and the infrastructure has to match the ambition.
Urla also carries recent history. When Turkiye hosted the series there in 2024, Mathis Ghio won the men’s title and Nia Suardiaz took the women’s title, a reminder that this venue can produce clean results once the conditions settle. The 2026 calendar gives Urla an even larger context, with Silvaplana in Switzerland coming June 16-20, Gizzeria-Calabria in Italy following July 8-12, and the Formula Wing World Championships set for Istanbul on August 10-15. That makes Urla more than an isolated stop. It is an early ranking battleground in a Turkish stretch that could shape the rest of the season.
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