The new champion of WingFoil Racing Marathon is Maddalena Spanu, athlete of the Young Azzurra program who triumphed at the international event held in Texel, Holland. At the end of 4 intense days of sea trials of this discipline born from mix of surfing, windsurfing and kitethe Sardinian athlete born in 2006 managed to get everyone in line, even overcoming the initial difficulties.
Already on the final day, Spanu led the provisional ranking and in the 80 km long distance test she managed to gain the decisive line with the opponents with a gap of 9.6 km at the finish line, also facing wind conditions between 18 and 22 knots. For the very young sailor born in Cagliari this is yet another success, after a 2023 to remember: last year he won the Wingfoil World Championship in Brazil, the Italian stage of the World Cup in Cagliari and the national championship in Oristano and then joined Young Azzurra, program dedicated to young talents launched in 2020 by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in continuity with the name and history of Azzurra, the vessel that represented the first Italian challenge to the America’s Cup.
“I’m really happy to have won the WingFoil Racing Marathon World Championship, I can’t contain the joy I feel – commented Spanu – Racing in weather and sea conditions that were particularly different from those I’m used to was a notable challenge. Sunday was the decisive day and this awareness was psychologically difficult to manage, also because I didn’t have it never faced such a long-lasting test. I tried to keep my concentration high, focusing on everything I learned during the training and in the end I managed to get the result I was hoping for. I’m really happy, not exclusively for the result but for how I achieved it, overcoming all the difficulties.” For Maddalena Spanu only a few hours of rest: the Sardinian athlete will in fact take part in the European Championship of Wingfoil Racing scheduled in Silvaplana, Switzerland, from Tuesday to Saturday.
