Techno 293 Europe Continental Championship - Victory on Lake Garda

by Patrik Pollak on 29 Apr 2014 It was a great performance by France, Israel, and Italy at the Techno 293 European Championship in Torbole, Italy, which finished on Saturday 26 April after a week of racing on Lake Garda.

Giorgia Speciale from Ancona (Stamura) was the best in her Division, and adds to the World Title won in Poland in 2013 another European title. But that is not all: thanks to the results in the Under 17 Division by two athletes from Siciliy, Giulia Alagna (eighth in the Under 17 female) and Ruggero Lo Mauro (eighth in the Under 17 male), Italy qualifies for the Summer Youth Olympic Games set to be held in Nanjing, China from 16 to 28 August 2014.

Other nations have qualified for Nanjing thanks to the results achieved in Torbole: Russia, Netherlands and Greece in the men's divisions, and Israel, Spain, and Netherlands in female's Division.

The European titles in Under 17 went to the Frenchman Tom Monnet and the Israeli Noy Drihan. The champions in Under 15 are the Italian Giorgia Speciale and the French racer Tom Arnoux, whilst the Techno Plus was taken by Julien Bouyer (FRA).

The podium was completely dominated by the French in the Under-17 men's class. Tom Monnet took first place having held it for the whole week. He was followed by compatriots Alec Herledan and Titouan Le Bosq.

The 2014 podium is the same as the 2013 edition, but in reverse order. The new European champion is Israel's Noy Drihan (Eilat SC) who sailed with great consistency. In eight out of 12 races she picked up bullets as well as two seconds and two fourths.

Drihan outdistanced teammate Shoval Ravitzky, who takes the second place she got last year. 2013 champion Mariam Sekhposyan (RUS) completed the podium

The podium of the men's Under 15 class goes to France, Greece and Great Britain.

Tthe victory, by a wide margin over the 11 races, went to Tom Arnoux, followed, for the purposes of the European Championship, by the Greek Leonidas Tsortanidis and the Briton Joshua Carey. Overall second place was picked up by the American Geronimo Nores who was unable to compete for the continental title but picked up valuable time on the water.

Giorgia Speciale from Marche masterfully led the Championship with nine first places out of 11 races, and discarding a second and a fourth place. She took a well-deserved title with an eight point lead over Greece's Natalia Arapoglou. Third place went to Polish Lidia Sulikowska, who precedes the Italian Alessandra Papitto (Lega Navale Ostia) in fourth.

The victory went to Frenchman Julien Bouyer, followed by compatriot Olivier Tuhault. The third step of the podium was picked up by Italy's Tommaso U17 boys - U17 girls - U15 boys - U15 girls - Plus