2026 World Champion Jonatán Vadnai HUN executing a celebratory back one and a half tuck dive
In a very exciting last finals race on 30 August Jonatán Vadnai won Hungary’s first ever ILCA World Championship medal and it was gold. In the 2026 series sailed at Dún Laoghaire Ireland a new scoring system was used in which race scores are halved for the top 10 who go into a two race with no drop finals series. Going into the second of the two finals races any one of the top ten could have won the event. With just the last finals race to go Jonatán was sitting 8th and Matt Wearn 7th with Michael Beckett GBR in 4th. These three finished in that order on the podium at the end of that last race.
Going into the finals Matt Wearn was 9th and performed a fabulous recovery posting a first and a second in the finals to secure the silver medal. Using the Vakaros System Matt was over the line under the P flag start of the final race so last at the start. He worked his way back to second. Next best Australians in the series were WA sailors Ethan Mcaullay 21st and Zac Littlewood 23rd. The full results of the finals (top 10) series are Here and the Qualification Series Here.
There is a great stream of the two finals races by the ILCA on YouTube Here. The races are quite short and with commentary by 2016 silver medalist and native Dubliner Annalise Murphy is well worth watching.
The Women’s ILCA 6 Worlds will be at the same venue 5-12 September. Event web site is Here.