The Windsurfer World Championship in Mondello - Overall
by ICARUS Sports 11 Oct 2022 02:24 PDT
Windsurfer World Championship in Mondello, day 3 © Icarus Sports
With the success of the Palermo Marco Casagrande in the spectacular long distance race and then in the slalom tests of the French Eric Belot (light), the Marsala Silvio Catalano (medium-light), the Australian Michael Lancey (medium-heavy), the other great interpreter of the world surf, the Palermo Paco Wirz (heavy) and the Marsala Laura Linares, in the women's category, the curtain fell on the number 48 edition of the World Championship of the windsurfer class organized by the club Albaria in collaboration with other circles of Palermo.
A good east wind in the Gulf of Mondello allowed in the morning to complete the batteries of the slalom, whose final had as great protagonist in the most followed test, the Olympic Roggero Lauria, Paco Wirz, in the water only in this test having given up the course-race. He was the big winner among the heavy among the riot of his fans from the beach and the crowded molecule of Roggero Lauria, historic club belonging to Wirz, whose crystal clear class emerged in this less tiring race of slalom.
Then, in the early afternoon, the scenic glance of the departure of the almost entire fleet of 350 competitors from 25 nations, aligned with the bow towards the Addaura. To kick off the former president of the Senate, the magistrate Piero Grasso, great fan of sailing boards. A path of some miles and almost an hour of battle between the waves.
To arrive first at the finish line between the great encouragement from the ground was the home athlete Marco Casagrande, already winner among the light course-race. The amplified voice of the speaker Pietro Porcella, a more than thirty-year institution of windsurfing in Mondello, punctuated the development of the competition. Thus ends an edition to remember for the quality of the competitors (even 30 athletes with at least one Olympic participation) for the quantity (twice the participants on the last World Cup before the pandemic, in 2019 in Torbole) and for infinite complacency to the leading organizing club, the Albaria and to the other clubs and organizations that have collaborated to leave Mondello a great memory.