The countdown to the iQFoil class European Championship has already begun for Pilar Lamadrid (Ellas son de aqui / Livinda / Puerto Sherry), who has earned the tag of rival to beat from next Tuesday based on her results. may 17th. It will be the first day of regattas of a continental event that will take place until Sunday 22 in the Italian Lake Garda, at the foot of the Alps, with the Sevillian called to fight for a new international success that would further establish her in the elite of a modality chosen to debut in the Olympic program at the 2024 Paris Games.

“My main objective of the European is to be in the top 10 of the fleet, which would be approximately to be among the first 11, since it seems that we are 117 registered.

In this way I would renew my position as level 1 in the Spanish pre-Olympic team for next season. Then, on a personal basis, look for the top 5 and fight for the medals”, recognizes the athlete rooted in El Puerto de Santa María.

To do this, the current number 5 in the world ranking of this specialty of windsurfing traveled to transalpine lands at the beginning of the month in order to finalize its set-up for a competition in which it hopes to improve on the fifth place achieved last year. It will be the third time that the sailor from the Puerto Sherry Yacht Club competes on Lake Garda, where in 2019 she managed to enter the Gold Group of a World Championship for the first time, then in the RS: X class, also held in this same scenario of Tórbole; and the following year she was eighth in the iqQFoil International Games of Campione de Garda.

“This lake is quite particular, because it really has two wind directions that work due to its layout, from North to South. Until 11 or 12 there is a land wind that then gives way to a totally different one, from the sea in quotes. For this reason and for sailing surrounded by mountains, this championship is not something usual, because we have some walls that logically influence all the tactical decisions and strategies that we have to make, affecting the behavior of the wind. In addition, being flat water we take higher speeds and that makes it easier for the entire fleet to have a more even level, even though it is a more complicated place to navigate, ”says the Sevillian about the special conditions of the transalpine glacial lake.

Despite the hundred-year-old number of participants in the European Championship, the current number 1 in the national ranking of iQFoil is confident in her progression to add another podium, such as the subtitle achieved last April in the Princess Sofía Trophy in Palma de Mallorca , scoring for the World Cup and where it was only surpassed by the current world and European champion, the French Noesmoen.

“So far, it will be the largest competition in which I have participated, with about 120 girls registered. In that sense, we will finally be two groups in each task in the previous phase, since until now we sailed in a fleet of 80, which was a bit crazy, mainly at the starts. For the rest, we are going to see how the wind behaves, because these days there have been storms. Although on the other hand we can't stay cold either, since it was sunny and it seemed like summer. Therefore, we can't wait to start enjoying it”, concludes a Lamadrid who, aside from being runner-up in the Sofia, this season had previously won the Bahía de Cádiz New Year Race, the IQFoil International Games in Lanzarote and the Olympic Week of Andalusia, held with the rank of the Spanish Cup.