Ergo Hestia Raceboard European Championships 2014 - Overall

by Ergo Hestia Raceboard European Championships on 2 Jul 2014 Three races heralded the start of the 2014 'Ergo Hestia' Raceboard European Championships which took place in Sopot, Poland. World Champion, Max Wojcik, racing on home turf, started as he meant to continue with two firsts.

However, former World Champion, Slovakian Patrik Pollak, was putting up a good fight in second place, starting the day with a third, improving with a second in race two then beating Max over the line to take the bullet in race three. Another local, Pawel Gardasiewicz, was third overall, just three points behind.

It was clear that the locals wouldn't have it all their way: first Grandmaster was Juha Blinnikka from Finland, first Veteran was German Bernd Neumann and we even had SuperVeteran Francisco Manchon from Spain.

A small ladies fleet but, even so, five countries were represented. Antonia Dominguez from Spain, led with two bullets and a second place with Aussie Joanna Sterling, snapping at her heels with two second places and a bullet. Finnish Aleksandra Blinnikka was currently in third place overall.

After a great first day's racing, competitors looked forward to the Opening Ceremony.

Beautiful sunny skies greeted competitors on the second day of racing at the Ergo Hestia Raceboard European Championships in Sopot, Poland. It was windy too but rather gusty.

The wind increased substantially in the second race and many sailors changed to their smaller sail for the final race of the day.

These variable conditions made for some interesting results. Whilst the top three in the men's fleet maintained their podium positions, there was plenty of movement up and down the leaderboard below them.

Max Wojcik took the bullets in the first and last races today but it was the German Fabian Grundmann first across the line in the other. Max extended his lead over Patrik Pollak who was now just one point ahead of Pawel Garasiewicz. Six points off the podium, Fabrian Grundmann and Benjamin Coisne had equal points.

Grandmaster Piotr Olewinski is a long-standing SKZ member who took part in the Olympic Games in Barcelona on a Lechner. Piotr would no doubt be delighted with his second and sixth places - although he wouldn't have been too happy with his OCS at the start of the day!

Aussie Joanna Sterling took all three bullets today and moved into the top spot of the ladies fleet, two points ahead of Veteran Antonia Dominguez. Aleksandra Blinnikka was holding on to her third place overall but was now nine points behind.

It was still quite close at the top of both leaderboards - with a 15 race series likely everything could change!

Pawel Gardasiewicz, who took the bullet in every race to claim the Masters World Champion title at Windsurfing Marina Julia, Italy in June last year, was on fire today and claimed the top spot on the leaderboard. Three firsts and a second meant he finished the day four points ahead of Max Wojcik. Patrik Pollak had slipped down to third, six points behind.

Two races in the morning followed by a break ashore then a further two back-to-back races in the afternoon were the order of the day. The course was a trapezoid with a leeward gate on the outer loop. A slight concern that forecast rain might disrupt proceedings but it did not materialise and exciting racing took place in good, but gusty, winds.

'It was my day!' said Pawel. 'With the windy weather we were able to have four races. There was a very strong wind, which today favoured me. I'm happy because I won three out of the four races and in the other one I was second. I'm really excited to be promoted to first place.'

'Today for me is a day of humility,' said Max. 'This was due in part to my mistakes on the water but also a little bit by equipment failure that meant I had to withdraw from race eight. Pawel sailed phenomenally and fully deserved to win and I am very happy for him.'