Papathanasiou leads Finn Gold Cup

by Corinne McKenzie/Sail-World Team/GJN on 12 Jul 2006 Opening day at the 50th Finn Gold Cup in Split, Croatia and Briton's Ed Wright opened with a win as did Emilios Papathanasiou of Greece, taking the second race.

As expected the competition was fierce with many sailors hoping to grab their chance to win the Finn Gold Cup in a championship dominated the last 4 years by Ben Ainslie. His absence is opening the field and brings new hopes in a strong fleet of 99 sailors coming from 31 countries.

Ed Wright took the first honours by winning convincingly the first race. After a clear start, the Brit increased his lead to 150 meters to the finish. Jonas Hoegh-Christensen (DEN) placed second in front of Dan Slater (NZL) and Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE).

The wind increased to 18 knots for the second race and the racing committee hoisted the Oscar flag allowing free kinetics. Sharing the lead with Rafael Trujillo during the whole race, Emilios Papathanasiou tricked the Spaniard on the last run to win the race.

'I was lucky' declared Emilios once ashore. 'My boat was damaged before the last race and I finished with 4 litres of water in the boat!' Athens Silver medallist, Rafael Trujillo took second place with +39 team mate Iain Percy in third.

Percy, now campaigning in the Star class, has been training hard in the Finn while in Valencia with +39 sailors. Anthony Nossiter, Michael Maier, Karlo Kuret and Piero Romeo are among the +39 sailors presents in Split.

When asked about his come back in a top Finn regatta after six years of absence, Iain Percy admits it is just for fun: 'I just wanted to come with the guys (+39) and enjoy myself in the Finn again. But actually there is not one muscle in my body that’s not hurting!'

Papathanasiou had finished fourth in the opening race and takes the overall lead after the first day. Second overall is Jonas Hogh-Christensen of Denmark after a second and a fourth, and Iain Percy is third.

In fourth place is Ed Wright who added a tenth to his opening race win. He is tied on eleven points with Rafel Trujillo (ESP) and Daniel Slater (NFL).

In the junior event British sailors hold the first three places. Mark Andrews leads, Andrew Mills is second and Henry Bagnell is third. The 16 Juniors in contention for the Jorg Bruder Silver Cup, are competing in the same fleet as the seniors and are representing 9 countries.

The forecast is not too promising for the second day of sailing with light winds preceding a storm in the afternoon.

Australians, Anthony Nossiter from Middle Harbour lies in 18th position, and in the Juniors, Ricky Ironmonger from Sandringham is in 7th spot.


Seniors - Leading positions after 2 race, 97 entries:
1 GRE 7 PAPATHANASIOU EMILIOS OSFP 4 1 5 pts
2 DEN 2 CHRISTENSEN JONAS HOGH ROYAL DAISH YC 2 4 6 pts
3 GBR 54 PERCY IAIN HAYLING ISLAND 7 3 10 pts
4 GBR 111 WRIGHT EDWARD PARKSTONE 1 10 11 pts
5 ESP 100 TRUJILLO RAFAEL JOAQUIN R.C. NAUTICO LA LINEA 9 2 11 pts
6 NZL 1 SLATER DANIEL MBSC 3 8 11 pts
7 CRO 524 KLJAKOVIÆ GAŠPIÆ IVAN ZENTA 5 12 17 pts
8 SWE 736 TILLANDER JOHAN JKV 12 5 17 pts
9 SWE 11 BIRGMARK DANIEL GKSS 11 6 17 pts
10 GBR 550 HOWARD MATT RYA 6 13 19 pts
11 NOR 1 MOBERG PEER KNS 10 9 19 pts
12 CAN 41 COOK CHRISTOPHER ROYAL CANADIAN YC 21 7 28 pts
13 FRA 73 GUILLAME FLORENT X 19 11 30 pts
14 NED 842 POSTMA PIETER JAN KWS 8 23 31 pts
15 POL 7 SZUKIEL RAFAL AZS UWM OLSZTYN 17 18 35 pts
16 FRA 972 ISMAEL BRUNO CNSCHOELCHER 15 22 37 pts
17 FIN 216 TAPIO NIRKKO EPS 23 15 38 pts
18 AUS 221 NOSSITER ANTHONY MIDDLE HARBOR 25 14 39 pts
19 USA 4 RAILEY ZACH SFYC 22 21 43 pts
20 LTU 7 GUZYS GIEDRIUS LYC 14 30 44 pts

Juniors - Leading positions:
1 GBR 88 ANDREWS MARK LARGS LA 51 pts
2 GBR 634 MILLS ANDREW QUEEN MARY MI 92 pts
3 GBR 99 BAGNALL HENRY ROYAL LONDON YC CO 95 pts
4 POL 1 DABKOWSKI KRZYSZTOF KS SPOJNIA WA 97 pts
5 POL 41 SZYDLOWSKI BARTEK KS SPOJNIA WA 97 pts
6 POL 45 MAZUR PIOTR KS SPOJNIA WA 122 pts
7 AUS 2 IRONMONGER RICKY SANDRINGHAM ME 134 pts
8 CZE 52 VIKA TOMAŠ CHEB PR 139 pts
9 HUN 8 BELICZAY MARTON ALBA REGIA BU 141 pts
10 ITA 40 KOLIC MARKO CV TORBOLE DE 142 pts
11 POL 17 KULA PIOTR BTZ BISKUPIEC BI 148 pts
12 EST 3 EESALU HEIKO R.O. PK TA 154 pts
13 EST 8 TAVETER AARE R.O. PK TA 180 pts
14 HUN 68 LASZLO NAGY AKOS ALMADI YC BU 182 pts
15 ITA 71 PODESTA LORENZO LA SPEZIA LS 185 pts
16 RUS 7 DUYNOV MAXIM MOSCOW SAILING SCHOOL 191 pts

Event website: http://www.jklabud.hr/2006/regate/finn/rezultati/rezultati.html