WASZP Games: Ball and Lattanzi deliver USA's first-ever double

72 boats from 12 nations raced on Pensacola Bay this week for the 2026 WASZP Games – the largest one-design foiling event ever staged in North America. The week began with an opening ceremony at the American Magic High Performance Centre, SailGP's first permanent training base, a setting that hinted at how seriously the pathway from WASZP to professional foiling is now being taken.

The Games themselves were preceded by two shake-up events: the All-Stars Invitational, a sprint slalom format with a US$10,000 prize pool, which Australia's Louis Tilly and reigning champion Pearl Lattanzi won; and the Pre-Games regatta across 10 races in shifting conditions, where in the 7.5 fleet Norway's Martinius Melleby Hopstock got the better of Lattanzi and Spain's Antonio Gasperini topped the 8.2s. Before the main event even began, the pecking order was already being rewritten.

Five days later and Hawaii's Gavin Ball and Pearl Lattanzi have made history – the first American pair to sweep the Games, with Ball breaking through for his first Men’s title and Lattanzi successfully defending her Women’s title in front of a home crowd. Martinius Melleby Hopstock, meanwhile, turned his Pre-Games form into an overall 7.5 victory for Norway.

None of these titles came without a fight. As the conditions swung from champagne foiling to barely enough wind to stay on the foils, the leaderboards were shuffled and reshuffled, and U-Flag Disqualifications derailed promising scorecards at the worst possible moments. Here’s how the week of racing went down…

Opening day delivered picture-perfect conditions. The breeze filled in through the afternoon, the sun was out, and the race committee got three races away. Lattanzi, who came in as the reigning All-Star Champion, looked every bit the favourite – she won all three races in the 7.5 fleet and headed back to the dock with a perfect scoreline.

Over in the 8.2 fleet, Ball was nearly as clinical, taking two wins and a second to sit on just four points overnight. The Americans had stamped their authority early, leaving the rest of the fleet to play catch-up.

Things got shaken up on Day 2. The organisers introduced a SailGP-inspired course format – reaching start, windward-leeward loop, then a blast to the finish on another reach – and it changed the shape of the racing immediately.

In the 7.5 fleet, Hopstock took a race win and served notice that Lattanzi wasn't untouchable, and Casey Small came charging through with two wins of her own in the final two races. She'd actually started the day with a UFD, which could have unravelled her day, but Small wasn't having it. "It was definitely a bit frustrating after the first UFD, but I just reset and went in the next race pretending it didn't happen," she said afterwards. "I gybed out early at the top mark and just stayed in pressure – I was able to keep foiling when others weren't." Lattanzi, for her part, stayed out of trouble with three seconds and used her discard to hold onto the lead.

The 8.2 fleet had a messier day. Both Gasperini and Thomas Sitzmann picked up UFDs, which punched holes in what had been solid scorecards. Ball extended at the top, but behind him the battle for the podium had turned into a four-way scrap with barely anything separating them.

The breeze went soft and shifty on Day 3, and suddenly the racing became a different game entirely. This wasn't about speed anymore, but about finding clean air, linking puffs across the course to stay flying. In the debrief Pablo Astiazaran summed it up: "It was a day that you had to play safe, no risks and sail around without losing power."

Hopstock thrived in it. The Norwegian won two races and added two more top-three finishes to draw level with Lattanzi, who had an unusually scrappy day with four fourths. The momentum had shifted. In the 8.2 fleet, Sitzmann – a quiet presence ashore but clearly formidable on the water – won three of the four races to pull level with Ball at the top. What had looked like comfortable American leads at the start of the week were suddenly under serious pressure.

Day 4 finally brought textbook foiling conditions – 10–15 knots, stable breeze, full-speed racing – and it produced the biggest shake-ups of the week. Hopstock was untouchable in the 7.5 fleet, winning three races and adding two seconds to open up a clear lead on 20 points. Lattanzi had a mixed bag and slipped back to 29. She was still in the fight for the Women's title, but in the overall standings she was now chasing, not controlling.

In the 8.2 fleet, Ball moved back to the top after Sitzmann had a wobble, but the story of the day was Gasperini. The Spanish winner of the Pre-Games rattled off three wins and a third to haul himself back into contention after those earlier setbacks. Astiazaran stayed steady in third. With one day left, nothing was settled.

Pensacola delivered the stronger breeze the forecasts had promised, and the final day lived up to its billing. In the 7.5 fleet, Hopstock closed out what had become an increasingly assured campaign. The Norwegian had been second at the 2025 Games and clearly arrived in Pensacola with unfinished business; his consistency across all conditions – tactical light air, high-speed reaching starts, proper foiling breeze – proved decisive. Canada's Callum Ruch and Henry Krieble completed the podium in second and third overall.

But the American story wasn't over. In the Women's Championship, Lattanzi delivered exactly when it mattered, sealing her second consecutive WASZP Games title with a composed final-day performance. Behind her, fellow American Annie Sitzmann took second, while Spain's Sol Lopez Navarro made the most of the stronger final-day conditions to secure third after a week-long scrap with Small.

Over in the 8.2 fleet, Ball put his mid-week wobbles behind him and sealed his first-ever Games title with the composure of someone who had been waiting for this moment. "It's been a big programme these last three years," he said afterwards. "I put a lot of effort into it and I'm so glad it paid off – just knowing the venue, knowing the patterns, figuring it out, and relying on my boat speed and my manoeuvres."

The fight for second went down to the wire. Gasperini and Astiazaran entered the final race level on points, and in a fitting conclusion to a week of trading blows, the pair rounded the final mark first and second. Gasperini held on to claim silver, with Astiazaran taking bronze – reversing their 2025 result and underlining just how tight the margins had been all week.

Lattanzi, reflecting on her back-to-back victories, pointed to the support system around her. "It's so good to be at a home worlds and to be surrounded with my coaches and my team," she said. "We've spent so much time in Pensacola training specifically for this event, and because American Magic is here with all of their support, Pensacola Yacht Club has been a good home base for us."

See full results here.

The WASZP class now has over 1,700 boats across 45 nations and runs more than 120 events globally each year. The 2026 Games marked the largest foiling class event ever staged in North America, with a fleet that spanned teenagers on their first big regatta to hardened championship veterans. Opening the event at the American Magic High Performance Centre looks to be a statement of intent, and earlier this year, America One Racing formalised a strategic partnership with the North American WASZP Class to put professional coaching into the pathway. The route from here to an F50 or AC40 cockpit is looking clearer by the year.

"A1R is using this WASZP fleet as a great place to develop our foiling talent, our foiling pipeline," says Ravi Parent, America 1 Racing foiling coach. "It's one of our classes with the WASZP and the wing foil where we're having lots of sailors come in, young, old, the whole range." The American Magic base, visible across the water, made an impression on the squad throughout the week. "It's really motivating for a lot of the sailors to see where they could go in the sport," Parent adds, "whether it's in racing or technical or leadership. It's a big inspiration for everyone, even myself."

Underpinning it all is a growing infrastructure. FOILFAST leads the charge in the USA, with WeCanFoil expanding access in Canada and A1R providing high-performance support. Between them, the North American programme is pushing foiling into school, university and club programmes – building depth at every level of the sport. Pensacola turned out to be the ideal proving ground: conditions that tested every part of a sailor's game, and a week that should carry real momentum into a North American season that's only just getting started.