Laser Standard and Laser Radial European Championships Results

by Laser Europeans on 12 Jun 2010 The Laser Standard and Laser Radial European Championships & Trophy 2010 in Tallinn, Estonia came to an end today with Croatian sailors winning both Laser Standard and Laser Radial.

The final day started with slow shifty wind, blowing two knots, but kept increasing and reached up to five knots by the second race. Laser Standards held two final races today, managing to complete the maximum number of races – 12. Laser Radials sailed 3 races today, to make up for the lost racing due to yesterday’s lack of wind, completing 11 races in total.

In Laser Standard, Croatian Tonci Stipanovic won his first European Championships title. Olympic winner and world champion Paul Goodison of Great Britain was second. European bronze went to Andreas Geritzer from Austria. In the Trophy score, Australian Tom Slingsby came third.

'I dreamt about it every day, but you can never tell for sure if this is day that you will become the European Champion. But I had a feeling this morning, did the best that I could and now I am the first Croatian to win the Europeans in Laser Standard,' Stipanovic said.

Paul Goodison settled with the silver medal this time. 'I am a little bit disappointed of coming second but that’s just sailing. It has been a really tricky venue in Tallinn with the wind predominantly been off shore, very shifty and quite big differences in pressure. It has been a difficult regatta, but we have been doing lots of racing and the best guy won in the end,' he said.

In Laser Radial, the new European Champion is Tina Mihelic, also from Croatia. Mihelic, who has been the leader since Day 1 racing, won by an impressive 19 points. 'I had been sailing really well the entire week and I had a good feeling for today. When we started the final races in the morning, I was leading by already 15 points, so I was confident and not under much pressure. I liked the conditions in Tallinn, nice weather, nice wind, and I was really confident as I had good speed, so I was just waiting for the others to make mistakes,' new European Champion Mihelic said. Silver medal went to Charlotte Dobson from Great Britain and bronze to Lithuanian Gintare Sheidt.

Laser Radial U21 European Champion is Martin Chloe from Great Britain, silver medallist Annalise Murphy from Ireland and bronze belongs to Mathilde de Kerangat from France.

Full results: http://www.laser2010tallinn.eu/web/?lang=en&page_id=5