Hong Kong claims both gold medals at the first ever WingFoil Racing Asian Championships and qualifies for Bali 2023 AWBG 

The first ever WingFoil Racing Asian Championships, held at the Club Loongchat, a favourite wind-sports spot on the beach to the south of Pattaya city/Thailand, gave a ticket to the first female and the first male competitors for the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games to be held in Bali, Indonesia, in August this year. 

In the women division, Hei Man Chan from Hong Kong claimed gold and secured her ticket to the ANOC World Beach Games without leaving any margin to her competition.  The 2012 and 2020 olympian and double Asian Games medalist, all on an RS:X windsurfer, gave birth to a baby only four months ago and now is confident that with the support of an extended family network she will be able to prepare for the ANOC Beach Games and try to add another title to her already career. 

Among the men, Rafeek Kikabhoy had a slow start in the competition but on day 3 he won all 6 races and climbed to pole position going into the final day.  The Asian Games silver medalist, who put his RS:X pumping skills in good use when it mattered to secure gold and earn the ticket to the ANOC World Beach Games. 

Yu Wing Ho, the Executive Director of the Windsurfing Association of Hong Kong, is a former windsurfer and coach and leads a 7-strong team at the Asians.  ‘Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic gold medal came from windsurfing back in 1996’ said Ho.  ‘This brought a lot of support within Hong Kong and we are lucky enough to manage the discipline independently.  Nowadays we see a lot of our windsurfers turning to WingFoiling.  With its inclusion into the ANOC World Beach Games we believe that it is likely to eventually become Olympic and for this reason we have extended our activities to include WingFoiling’ he continued.   

With information from: https://wingfoilracing.com/