The 2025 iQFOiL World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark marked another milestone in my Olympic journey, filled with valuable racing experience, learning moments, and the usual highs and lows that come with international competition.
In the lead-up to the Worlds, I had a productive two-week camp with the Australian squad in Mooloolaba. We focused on simulating tricky and technical conditions, which turned out to be a perfect lead-in to what Aarhus had in store. Once in Denmark, I was also lucky to get some great training days in before racing kicked off, which helped me get familiar with the local conditions.

This year’s Worlds brought its fair share of challenges, with light and highly unstable breeze throughout the week. After four days of racing and two full days lost to no wind, I finished 92nd overall in a huge international fleet. It wasn’t the result I was aiming for, but it was a tough regatta with tricky conditions that tested everyone.

Day 1 started with three course races, where the breeze gradually faded. By the third race, it was almost impossible to get around the course, which led to the introduction of the upwind sprint format for the first time at a Worlds. It brought a fresh and exciting change, and something I look forward to developing more in my own racing.

On Day 3, racing resumed with a solid session of both course races and sprints. These were some of my more consistent performances, showing signs of progress. The final day was another long wait, where we were held onshore from 11am until launching at 7pm. We squeezed in one very light windward-leeward race and a dramatic slalom race,
which came only after over 15 general recalls across the two fleets! We finished up the very long day around 11pm, which goes to show the lengths the race committee had to go to in order to get us to race.

A definite highlight was heading out on the water to spectate the medal series. Watching the top eight men and women battle it out up close was a high-pressure, dramatic finale that really showed the intensity and excitement of this format at the highest level.

While the result wasn’t what I had hoped for, I’ve come away with a lot of learnings and some key process goals ticked off. I now have a clear focus heading into the domestic season, particularly on refining specific techniques and equipment settings.
As always, I’m incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and the world-class facilities that I’m lucky enough to train from year-round.

by Jarrod Jones