2015 Junior Finn World Championship - Tense and exciting final day

by Robert Deaves on 6 Jul 2015 Ondrej Teply (CZE) has won the 2015 Junior Finn World Championship after a tense and exciting final day in Valencia. Nenad Bugarin (CRO) placed one higher than last year to take the silver while Lars Johan Brodtkorb (NOR) had a great final day to move up one place and take the bronze.

While the wind this week was never as strong as expected, perhaps because of the high temperatures, the full series was completed after two races were sailed in a solid breeze on the final day.

The main attention was on the two front-runners Teply and Bugarin, only two points apart and both carrying a letter score. Neither figured highly in the first race of the day while third placed Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS) narrowed the gap with a second place finish. The race win finally went to Andre Hojen Christiansen (DEN), with Damis Duterte Ville (FRA) in third. Brodtkorb kept his challenge alive with a fourth.

It was still wide open going into the final race with Teply seven points ahead of Bugarin. Neither could make a mistake. In the end Teply wrapped up the championship the way he began it, with a race win. Brodtkorb crossed in second and Fabian Pic (FRA) in third. A ninth for Kistanov meant he dropped down to fourth overall, giving Brodtkorb the bronze medal.

Stig Steinfurth (DEN) made up slightly for his disappointment of Saturday’s only race to move back up to fifth overall with two top six finishes. While there were some new faces at the front today, the only other major change inside the top 10 were Hojen Christiansen climbing to seventh overall after his race win and Luke Muller (USA) clawing his way back into tenth after two excellent fifth places, one of the best scorelines of the day.

Teply, who still has two more years to sail as a Junior said, “It was tough day for me today with two races, but I managed to have a bit of an advantage after the first race today so in the second I felt quite relaxed and I won. The feelings are amazing so it’s time to celebrate.”

Bugarin commented on his day, and his last race as a Junior, “I did not present my best sailing today so at the end was very difficult to protect the silver medal. But I did it and I am happy because of that. My junior time is done so I hope I will be able to sail at a high level in senior competition.”

The Finn Silver Cup at the Real Club Nautico de Valencia has brought together 30 sailors from 14 nations and three continents. It has been a true world title battle between some of the sailors who will be challenging for space on the starting line in Rio in 2016 and perhaps for medals in Tokyo in 2020. Several of these sailors are already pulling in top results at the senior events and it is very encouraging to see the level of dedication and sporting maturity in some so young. The front end of the Finn class will be in good hands for many years to come.

The club in Valencia, along with race officer Maria Torrijo (ESO), has done an exceptional job in running fair and quality racing for the Finn juniors. The hospitality of the club's officials and members has been first class and the Finns look forward to returning in the near future. The success of the Finn class in Valencia is largely down to the efforts of Luca Devoti and his Dinghy Academy. Many of those competing this week use the Dinghy Academy as their training base and perhaps there can be no better recognition of the Dinghy Academy's programme than to have one of its sailors become 2015 Finn Junior World Champion. Congratulation to Ondrej Teply, and to all other competitors on a tough and challenging week's racing.

Results after 11 races (one discard)

1 - CZE 5 - Ondrej Teply - 40
2 - CRO 52 - Nenad Bugarin - 52
3 - NOR 9 - Lars Johan Brodtkorb 55 -
4 - RUS 6 - Arkadiy Kistanov - 59
5 - DEN 31 - Stig Steinfurth - 65
6 - GER 25 - Max Kohlhoff - 78
7 - DEN 24 - Andre Hojen Christiansen - 80
8 - ARG 48 - Facundo Olezza - 84
9 - GER 259 - Phillip Kasüske - 87
10 - USA 91 - Luke Muller - 94