GWA Wingfoil World Cup Fuerteventura 2026 - Day 4
Francesco Cappuzzo and Kylie Belloeuvre are the new FreeFly Slalom World Champions
The final day of the FreeFly-Slalom competition was full of suspense right up to the end. Bastien Escofet and Nia Suardiaz were competing to defend their 2025 world championship titles.
And both did an outstanding job in the qualifying round held yesterday and today. They each won three of the four heats and recorded one second-place finish each as their discard result.
With that, Bastien Escofet and Nia Suardiaz already had one point toward victory in the bag—in this scoring system, that’s called a “bullet.”
The final round is held in a single-elimination format, and a victory in the final earns additional points (bullets). The rider who is the first to reach two bullets wins the competition.
Along with the runners-up from the qualifying round, Francesco Cappuzzo and Kylie Belloeuvre, Bastien Escofet and Nia Suardiaz advanced directly to the finals. In the men’s division, six additional riders, and in the women’s division four additional riders, had the chance to battle their way through the semifinals to the finals.
In the men's division, those riders were Sebastiano Zorzi and Alessandro Tomasi; in the women's division, they were Mar de Arce and Bowien van der Linden. But these riders were not destined to play a major role, because - just as in the preliminary round - the races turned into a head-to-head battle between the top two finishers in each division.
But then it happened. Nia, who had been in the lead, capsized at the second-to-last jibe mark. Kylie pulled ahead, crossed the finish line unchallenged, and had thus also secured a bullet. The decision was postponed until the next race.
Something similar happened in the men's final. Bastien Escofet was in the lead but chose an unfavorable course at the cross. Francesco Cappuzzo pulled ahead and maintained that lead all the way to the finish. A “bullet” for Francesco; the decision is postponed.
Next up was the second women’s final. The lead changed hands several times until Nia crashed again just before the last buoy. She lost the lead, Kylie passed her, and her mission to defend her title failed.
Kylie Belloeuvre could hardly believe her victory after crossing the finish line; with one hand on her helmet, she turned around and foiled back to Nia, who was still in the water.
With her victory, Kylie Belloeuvre not only won the event on Fuerteventura but also the FreeFly-Slalom world championship title. Spain's Mar de Arce finished third in both categories.
Then it was on to the men’s final. Shortly after the start, there was a turning mark. Francesco Cappuzzo was in the lead at that point, and Bastien Escofet wanted to gain a few meters by taking the shorter inside line. As he crossed a wave, his windward rail grazed the water, knocking the Frenchman off his board.
The path was clear for Francesco Cappuzzo to secure his second “bullet” - the event victory and world championship title went to the Italian. A visibly dissatisfied Bastien Escofet had to settle for the vice world championship title.
Alessandro Tomasi finished third in the event, while Sebastiano Zorzi took third place in the overall annual standings.
That wraps up the report on the official competitions - since the event runs through Saturday, there will be a demo race over obstacles tomorrow. Wing foiling has a chance to become an Olympic sport, so they want to test out regatta formats. We’ll keep you posted...
July 31, 2026 © WING DAILY | text: Jürgen Schall | photos/graphics: fuerteventura-worldcup.org / Tom Brendt | translation: DE
