Zane Schweitzer has won the 2015 Italia Surf Expo SUP Race, saluting against a small but very elite field of European stars in what looked to be a festival atmosphere.

Zane didn’t actually win either of the two races on the weekend – the distance and the sprints – however his pair of runner-up performances was enough for the overall event title.

The Danish Viking, Casper Steinfath, took the distance win on Saturday, however a poor 5th place in the sprints ended his title hopes. South Africa’s young journeyman Dylan Frick clinched the short course on Sunday, which elevated him to 4th place overall after a bad result (8th) in the distance.

Splitting this trio was Leonard Nika, one of the new heroes of Europe’s SUP racing scene. On his home turf, Leo took a pair of thirds to round out the podium behind Zane and Casper.

On the women’s it was a small upset, with Europe’s young gun Manca Notar being narrowly upstaged by rising star Ane Zulaika.

Ane has been one of the revelations in Europe this summer, and continued her good form to win the sprints on Sunday. Her and Manca swapped one-two finishes between the two events, however Ane took the overall title with the tie-breaker.

Italy was the third and final stop of the 2015 EU Cup, which is part of the Stand Up World Series franchise. The European Cup is not to be confused with the Euro Tour that ran earlier in the summer (the European Cup is on 12’6 boards, while the Euro Tour is on 14 footers).

The level of competition on show in the men’s race qualified Italia for the SUP Racer World Rankings, with a Race Index score of 15.0%. Zane’s win was just enough to move him up one spot to world #11.

Unfortunately the women’s race didn’t qualify for the rankings. That’s been something of a theme across all races in Europe this summer – very little female participation.

Anyway full results from Italia are below, scroll down for a great little highlights reel.

2015 Italia Surf Expo SUP Race

Place	Athlete	Distance	Distance	Sprints	Overall	POINTS
1	Zane Schweitzer	0:55:16	2	2	4	15.00
2	Casper Steinfath	0:54:27	1	5	6	11.25
3	Leonard Nika	0:57:12	3	3	6	9.00
4	Dylan Frick	0:58:41	8	1	9	7.50
5	Davide Ionico	0:58:00	7	4	11	6.38
6	Roman Frejo	0:57:31	6	7	13	5.25
7	Paolo Marconi	0:57:17	4	11	15	4.50
8	Davide Codotto	0:58:49	9	9	18	3.75
9	Federico Esposito	0:57:20	5	15	20	3.38
10	Eric Terrien	1:03:35	14	6	20	3.00
11	Claudio Nika	1:00:44	11	10	21	2.70
12	Giordano Bruno Capparella	0:59:54	10	12	22	2.40
13	Fabrizio Gasbarro	1:00:47	12	14	26	2.25
14	Leonardo Toso	1:03:26	13	13	26	2.10
15	Peter Kosinski	1:06:04	19	8	27	1.95
16	Reza Nasiri	1:04:31	15	16	31	1.80
17	Ludovic Teulade	1:05:54	18	18	36	1.65
18	Dridah Hakim	1:05:06	17	22	39	1.50
19	Zamuner Nicola	1:04:44	16	24	40	1.35
20	Federico Benettolo	1:09:46	23	18	41	1.20
21	Lorenzo Boschetti	1:06:48	21	20	41	1.13
22	Paolo Lampariello	1:09:26	22	20	42	1.05
23	Mauro Alicandro	1:06:10	20	24	44	0.98
24	Franco Dal Pont	1:23:36	24	22	46	0.90
25	Giorgio Dal Pont	1:33:45	25	25	50	0.83

Women’s Combined Results
1st: Ane Zulaika (2nd, 1st) 3 points
2nd: Manca Notar (1st, 2nd) 3 points
3rd: Susak Molinero (3rd, 3rd) 6 points
4th: Susanne Lier (4th, 4th) 8 points
5th: Margerita Boschetti (7th, 5th) 12 points
6th: Celine Guesdon (5th, 7th) 12 points
6th: Giulia dal Pont (6th, 6th) 12 points
8th Iliana Lakafosi (8th, 8th) 16 points