Malcesine, Italy, July 2026
For the third consecutive year, SFT joined Foiling Week in Malcesine to expand the foiling world – this year adding parawing to downwind, pump foil and e-foil, and crowning the discipline’s first-ever world champions on Lake Garda.
The iconic downwind race across Lake Garda, pump foil and e-foil were joined this year, for the first time, by parawing, as SFT once again brought new disciplines to one of the sport’s most legendary stages. With the best athletes on the planet on the start line, record participation in the downwind race, and the naming of the sport’s first-ever world champions, 2026 is a year SFT will not forget. Now in its 13th edition, Foiling Week brought together racing, clinics, trials, public experiences and the Foiling Sport Congress across nine days on Lake Garda. Hosted by Fraglia Vela Malcesine, the event welcomed sailors, foiling athletes, teams, designers, boat builders, companies, event organizers, national federations, partners, media and foiling enthusiasts from around the world, reaffirming Lake Garda’s place as one of the world’s leading destinations for high-performance sailing and foiling. Within that program, SFT once again delivered world-class racing across four board disciplines.
SFT DOWNWIND WORLD CUP
The legendary downwind race across Lake Garda remains the heart of SFT’s board sport program, and 2026 brought its biggest fleet yet. Now in its third edition alongside Foiling Week, the Downwind Race drew a record number of competitors, all chasing the same finish line beneath Malcesine’s Scaligero Castle. Congratulations to this year’s winners: Tom Pansard (FRA) in Parawing, Teodoro Rofrano (IT) in Foil Assist, Marnie Bertram (GER) in SUP and Dmitry Evseev (MUS) in Parawing Masters.
SFT PUMP FOIL WORLD CUP
Pump foil remains one of the fastest-growing disciplines in the sport, especially among young athletes across Europe. No wind, no waves — just technique, rhythm and raw pumping power against the clock around a tight buoy course. At Lake Garda, the men’s fleet produced one of the closest battles of the week between two of the fastest pumpers on the planet: Titouan Tournus (FRA) edged out Edan Fiander (SUI) for the win, with Jurij Scheibler (AUT) completing the podium. In the women’s fleet, Marnie Bertram (GER) topped a tightly balanced field ahead of Sarah Spalinger (SUI) and Caroline Eiben (GER). The Youth podium went to Oliver Young (NZL), Lou Thouin (FRA) and Lukas Bunkenburg (GER), with Luc Stadler (FRA) topping the Masters.
SFT E-FOIL WORLD CUP
E-foil is the fastest-growing discipline in the SFT world, reaching across age, background and skill level and allowing almost anyone to try it – and fall in love with the speed, precision and technology of electric foiling. From beginner-friendly all-round boards to dedicated racing boards and foil set-ups, the equipment is developing just as fast as the athletes’ skills. Particular attention this year went to the growth in women’s participation, up from just 3 riders last year to almost 20 at Lake Garda – a clear sign of where this discipline, and perhaps the future of foiling itself, is heading.
On the water, in the MEN PRO category Manel Arpa (ESP) took the win ahead of Alexandre Tete (FRA) and Clemens Kresser (AUT). In the women’s fleet, Agnes Wicander (SWE) claimed victory ahead of Sofia Wittmann (GER) and Nia Suardiaz (ESP). Albert Ayerbe (ESP) topped the Men Challenger fleet ahead of Nico Hopp (GER) and Vladislavs Mironovs (LTV), while Kresser went on to top the Masters ahead of Piet Varkevisser (NED) and Kai Katchadourian (USA).
SFT PARAWING WORLD CUP
But the biggest news, and the absolute milestone — not just for the foiling community, its athletes or SFT, but for watersports as a whole — was the newest addition to the SFT disciplines at Foiling Week Malcesine: PARAWING. Introduced in 2026 as the newest discipline on the SFT Surf Foil World Tour, parawing captured the public’s attention immediately. The colourful wings, the variability, the combinations of skills — and above all the stash, a manoeuvre totally unique to the discipline that lets an athlete use the power of the wind to accelerate or climb, then release it to simply glide above the water on the energy of the ocean, lake or natural bumps beneath them — is something the foiling audience had simply never seen before.
SFT added parawing to the 2026 World Tour calendar with three events: Mondial du Vent in Leucate, France; Wing Fest in Cabarete, Dominican Republic; and, finally, Foiling Week Malcesine at Lake Garda — which became the final stop of the Parawing World Tour, and the occasion for naming the discipline’s first-ever world champions. The new parawing athletes arrived with strong backgrounds in other sports — windsurfing, wingfoiling, SUP — and the level of racing was immediately worthy of a world stage. The final results confirmed that skill diversity, precision, and the ability to read conditions under pressure are what bring the winning results.
Huge congratulations to the first-ever SFT Parawing World Champions, crowned at Foiling Week Lake Garda:
Bastien Escofet (FRA) – SFT Parawing World Champion 2026
Dmitry Evseev (MUS) – second place
Tom Pansard (FRA) – third place
Manon Dupe (FRA) – first-ever Parawing Women’s World Champion 2026
This year, the Parawing World Tour named its first champions – but the discipline is only just beginning, and we are already looking forward to announcing the 2027 calendar to continue this unbelievable sport.
To conclude SFT’s participation at Foiling Week, we would like to recognise FOILING WEEK Malcesine, WE ARE FOILING and Fraglia Vela Malcesine – without whom none of this would have been possible.
Words: Zuzana Pavelkova
Images: Foiling Week Media
Video & Edit: Tomas Dietl
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