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Enzo Balanger’s Garda Breakthrough

France’s Enzo Balanger claimed the 2025 Moth World Championship on Lake Garda with a week of near-flawless racing. Tom Slingsby stormed back for second, while Kiwi Jacob Pye sealed third and the Youth title in a stacked fleet of Olympic medallists and rising stars.

Image © Martina Orsini

There’s always a sailor who just seems to be in the right place, in the right breeze, with the right mindset. At the 2025 Moth World Championship in Malcesine, that sailor was France’s Enzo Balanger.

Across a week of tricky Garda weather—some of it classic, some of it not—Balanger barely put a foot wrong. With 137 sailors from 25 countries on the start list, including a stacked roster of Olympic medallists, SailGP stars, and America’s Cup glitterati, even with the young French sailor’s dominating victory in the pre-worlds Foiling Week regatta, the odds of a repeat performance looked slim. But by Sunday afternoon, there he was Moth World Champion by a tidy 12 points.

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