Sean Herbert has claimed his first WingFoil Racing World Cup title, winning a dramatic three-race medal series on the final day in Sardinia.
The Aucklander arrived at the decider carrying serious momentum, having topped qualifying after winning eight races across the week. That result sent him straight through to the men's grand final alongside Italy's Alessandro Tomasi, bypassing the earlier medal series rounds entirely.
Both sailors brought a win into the final series, meaning it came down to a third, decisive race to settle the title.
Herbert had been dealing with equipment trouble, having damaged his six-metre wing earlier in the week and been forced to race on a smaller one. He won the drag race to the first mark and never let go, holding off the chasing fleet to claim the biggest win of his career.
"I've loved the conditions here," Herbert said. "It reminds me of sailing back home. Ales (Tomasi) has been sailing really well this year, so to take my first World Cup win ahead of him is great. I'm really stoked."
The conditions themselves were no gift. A strong, steady breeze combined with testing swell made Sardinia a genuinely difficult stage for the medal series, and Herbert's week stood out against that backdrop.
It's been a breakthrough 2026 season for the Kiwi. He arrived in Sardinia already in form, having won all four long-distance races on the opening day before carrying that form straight into the course-racing qualification.
Topping that qualifying leaderboard meant he could skip the earlier medal series stages and simply wait for whoever emerged from the final.
Fellow Kiwi Kosta Gladiadis, the only other New Zealander in the fleet, narrowly missed the top-10 cut, finishing qualifying in 12th.
Tomasi was joined in the final by France's Julien Rattotti and Italy's Michele Capitani. Capitani produced one of the standout performances of the day, fighting through from the quarter-final to the grand final before winning the opening race outright. Rattotti hit back to level the scores in the second race, setting up the decider against Herbert.
Herbert didn't blink. He took the lead early in that third race and controlled it to the finish, becoming a World Cup event winner for the first time.
In the women's fleet, France's Vaina Picot got the better of defending World Cup champion Maddalena Spanu to claim her third World Cup win of the season.
The circuit now heads to Brazil, where the World Cup season will reach its climax in Jericoacoara from 1 to 5 December.
