Olympic Garda 2010 draws to a close

by Fraglia Vela Riva Press office, E.G. on 17 May 2010
With the Medal Races for the 470, Laser, 49er, Star and the final of the women's Match Race on Lake Ledro, all taking place today, 'OLYMPIC GARDA' Eurolymp grade 2 ISAF organized by Fraglia Vela Riva in collaboration with Circolo Surf Torbole and Fraglia Vela Malcesine, who oversaw the RS: X and Star regattas, came to a close.

The level of success is decisively positive for the high number of races ran in every class (2 eliminations in the worst of some fleets), in spite of the weather being changeable and even quite stormy at times to say nothing of being really quite cold. There were a high number of international participants (40) and the technical standard in some fleets were at World Champion and Olympic Medal Level.

Upper Lake Garda consistently produced a good wind (apart from the first day) and it showed to be in its league as a venue for sailing boats and Olympic Events, in particular. A land and water staff guaranteed 'smooth sailing' with 46 Regatta Officials, 20 buoy setters and four secretaries looking after the athletes, coaches and judges.

Today's medal races (finals of the first 10 with double points compared to the previous races), took place with what was, at first, a light northerly breeze and more or less confirmed the positions on the podium that the previous races had already set apart from a couple of exceptions in medal order.

Star
A great performance from Croatian Lovrovic, who in the last 2 days knocked from the lead the World Champion of 2009 Szabo (USA), finishing in first place yesterday, Lovrovic managed to stave off his American adversary in today's medal race keeping him 2 places behind (4th Lovrovic and sixth Szabo), but it was enough to give him the gold medal at Olympic Garda 2010. Szabo finished in second place, 9 points behind and third was German Matthias Miller.
49er

The Sibello Brothers comfortably won the medal race and took home the Olympic Garda 2010 Gold Medal with an 11-point lead over Portuguese Freitas-Andrade. third place Makino-Takahashi of Japan.

470-M
Unbeatable from the first day were Argentinians Calabrese-De La Fuente winning also the medal race.
Excellent result for the Dubbini Brothers (ITA), who in two days have continued to improve and finish in a final second position, coming second in today's medal race. Dropping into third place, instead, Zandonà-Zucchetti coming only seventh in the medal race.

470-F
A decisive victory for Japanese Kondo-Tabata, who finished first in the medal race, followed by fellow Japanese Yoshiisako-Okuma. Italy's Conti-Micol (Marina Militare), who were in second place yesterday, finished fourth in the medal race and so finished in a final third place just 1 point from the Silver Medal.

Laser Standard
Despite placing ninth in the medal race, Spaniard Javier Hernandez took the Gold Medal.
Silver for Adonis Bougiouris of Greece and Bronze for Argentinians Julio Alsogaray The top three positions for the medal race went to Burton (Australia), Ha Jemin (Korea) and Berecz respectively but in the general standing, all remained far behind.

Laser Radial
Mexican Elias Callas Tania won the Gold Medal with a 13 point lead over Fatima Reyes of Spain. In third place Lithuanian Scheidt. Alicia of Spain outperformed by winning the medal race but because of several DNC or DNF she didn't get beyond eighth place.

RS: X
1st place for Richard Stauffacher of Switzerland, second Tomyzawa of Japan and third for Hyungk of Korea. Multi champion Alessandra Sensini has taken advantage of this event to prepare herself for the European Championship which will take place in July.

The Match Race
Australian Katie Spithill-Pellew, favourite going into this event, did not disappoint: easily beating Brit Katie Archer by 3-1. The other Brit Mary Rook beat Italian Lorenza Mariani who finished fourth.

The women Match race a new Olympic event, took place on Lake Ledro at the local Associazione Vela, who at the end of August will organize the grade 1 ISAF classic event with the strongest racers participating. This was the first time that the women's match race was officially included in Olympic Garda with a positive participation in spite of the European Championship being held at the same time.

PH HR: http://picasaweb.google.com/FragliaRiva/HighResOLYMPICGARDA2010#
PH LR: http://picasaweb.google.com/FragliaRiva/OLYMPICGARDAEurolymp2010#

Partner:
PROVINCIA AUTONOMA DI TRENTO, INGARDA, MARINE POOL
E con la partecipazione di: RIVA FIERE E CONGRESSI, ASSOCIAZIONE AGRARIA RIVA.