Laser and Laser Radial Europeans – First day of racing in final series
by Tine Vinther on 24 Jul 2015
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Thom Touw
The final series in the Laser and Laser Radial European Championships 2015 have begun and the race for medals has set in.
After yesterday’s racing the Laser Standard and the Laser Radial Women fleets were split into gold and silver while the Laser Radial Men maintained their one fleet.
The first race in the final series was scheduled for 1pm and when the sailors took to the water a light south-western breeze was blowing with a speed of six to 10 knots. Quite different from yesterday’s top 25 knots top speed.
The wind, however, kept changing directions making it hard for the fleets to get a clean start.
The Radial Women were the first ones off while the Radial Men’s fleet suffered from general recalls due to the unstable wind and competitive behaviour resulting in six black flags. After three abortive attempts at racing the Radial Men came ashore around 7.30pm having had a very long day but nothing to show for it.
Sadly for the six sailors who were black flagged today that also rules them out of tomorrow’s first race as their penalty of not being allowed to finish the race has not yet been executed.
Today’s Radial Men’s ranking thus stays the same as yesterday and Marcin Rudawski from Croatia is ranked first. Danish Radial sailor Patrick Döpping had a brilliant day yesterday and finished first in both qualifying races ranking him sixth in total. With a bit of luck, he might be able to meddle in the top three ranking before the championship is done.
After the Radial Women finished their first race the wind suddenly dropped drastically leaving absolutely no possibility of racing at all. After two hours of waiting for the wind to pick up and a general recall, the gold fleet managed to finish the second race while the silver fleet was forced to give up the second race.
Alicia Cebran Martinez De Lagos (88) had a reasonable day on the water and finished sixth and 14th enabling her to maintain first place in the total ranking.
The light wind became Bulgarian Tatiana Drozdovskaya (2), as she raced herself to a second place in the total ranking finishing third and fifth in today’s final racing.
On the Laser Standard court, both gold and silver fleet were challenged with lacking the wind as well. Both fleets, however, managed to finish two final racing and – as in all the previous racing - competition was fierce.
The Dutch thriller serial between Rutger Van Schaardenburg (251) and Nicholas Heiner (248) reached a climax today as Nicholas had somewhat of an off day compared to his previous accomplishments at this year’s European Championship.
Racing sixth and 27th Nicholas was sent to a third place in today’s total ranking and was surpassed by German Philipp Buhl (211) who, on the other hand, kept racing consistently and achieving great results. Today Buhl finished fifth and first earning him second place in the total rankings only surpassed by one, namely Heiner’s archrival; Rutger Van Schaardenburg.
Rutger displayed flawless racing today and came in first and second which puts him back in the lead and leaves Nicholas Heiner as the pursuer of the Olympic seat before the second day of the final series.
The Dutch battle for the seat at the Olympics is beginning to leave frayed nerves ashore on the venue in Kaløvig where the Dutch media is arriving in numbers these days to cover all aspects of the drama.
Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow!
Tomorrow the gold and silver fleets will continue racing in the final series.
The Laser Radial Men have some catching up to do and are thus scheduled to race at noon while the rest of the fleets are scheduled for 1pm.
Today's overall results
Laser Radial Women
Laser Radial Men
Laser Standard
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