2025 Youth Sailing World Championships at Vilamoura, Portugal - Summary
by Prow Media 20 Dec 2025 18:21 GMT
13-20 December 2025
It will be the first time in the history of the Youth Sailing World Championships that the
same city and country host the official event in two consecutive years.
Following the success of this year's Youth Sailing World Championship 2025, the
world championship will return to Vilamoura in 2026. This year's edition was one of
the largest ever, with the participation of 424 sailors from 67 countries, competing
across the 29er, ILCA 6, Nacra 15, 420, iQFOiL and Formula Kite classes.
"This week we were awarded by World Sailing, perhaps as a result of this year's
excellent performance, with the organisation of the 2026 edition. For next year, together with the International Federation, our goal is to reach 80 participating
countries," announced Nuno Reis, CEO and Founder of Vilamoura Sailing.
"For several years we have been the world's largest dinghy sailing centre, in terms of
the number of athletes and Olympic teams based here between September and
March. Our objective with these junior events is to introduce young sailors and future
Olympic athletes to our project in Vilamoura. Moreover, having the courage to host
an event of this scale again in December is extremely important for the local
economy," the CEO added.
This Friday marked the final day of competition of the World Championships. From a
national perspective, the highlight was Madalena Wanzeller, who, after finishing 6th
overall on the third day of racing, concluded her participation in 13th place overall
among the 49 sailors competing in the ILCA 6 class.
"I am very proud to be here representing Portugal. It was a championship with ups
and downs, but I was pleased with my performance. My goal was to finish within the
top fifteen and that was achieved. I know I will take valuable knowledge from this
experience that will help me improve in the future," said the sailor from Barreiro.
In the men's competition, the standout performance came from Diogo Borges de
Sousa, who, despite physical limitations after breaking a finger two weeks before the
start of the championship, finished 15th overall among the 38 competitors in the
iQFOiL (windsurfing) class.
"I'm happy. I made some mistakes during the races, but I learned a lot. I leave here
as a more tactical athlete and also realised that I need to gain some weight. I still
have the opportunity to compete in two more world championships and my goal is
to continue improving. Finishing second in one race was amazing, and next time it
will be a first place," said the 16-year-old sailor, who is expected to return to
Vilamoura for the event in 2026.
The new Youth World Champions in the men's and women's categories respectively
are: David Coates (USA) and Irene De Tomás (Spain) in the ILCA class; Peleg Rajuan
(Israel) and Medea Falcioni (Italy) in iQFOiL Windsurf; Gian Stragiotti (Switzerland)
and Suofeiya Li (China) in Formula Kite; Sviatoslav Madonich and Dmytro
Karabadzhak (Ukraine), and Sabine Potter and Merle Nieuwland (Great Britain) in
the 420 class; Szymon Kolka and Bartosz Zmudzinski (Poland), and Lila Edwards and
Amelie Hiscocks (Great Britain) in the 29er class; and Lorenzo Sirena and Alice Dessy
(Italy) in the Nacra 15 class.
The Youth Sailing World Championships were supported by Marina de Vilamoura, Loule City Council, Turismo de Portugal and IPDJ.
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