RS-X Youth World Windsurfing Championships - Race day one

by RS:X Olympic Windsurfing Class on 26 Oct 2010 RS:X Youth World Windsurfing Championships, Day one update: After a short postponement the fleet were called out into a building breeze which quickly settled in at 230 degrees. Three track-back full on planing races later and all returned ashore tired but happy. Some more so than others!

Manfredi Misuraca [ITA], the 2009 RS:X Youth World bronze medallist had a day he would rather forget, finishing 24th in the first race of the day! The good news is that he picked himself up posting a fifth and ninth in the next two. Hemorrhaging points is certainly not a good game plan. Still with 16 races scheduled and two discards in prospect all is not lost. He will just have to be on top form for the rest of the regatta to realise his ambition of being on the podium again at the end of the week. To say that he was disappointed when he hit the beach is an under-statement

The current RS:X Youth World Champion, Michalis Malekkides [CYP] on the other hand put in a faultless first day. Three bullets gives him a perfect score of three. You don't have to be a genius to work out that he is out to do the 'double'. Thomas Goyard [FRA] has certainly mad it plane that Michalis is not going to be given a 'walk over'. He too has a perfect score. These two are supreme in planing conditions. When and if the wind goes light things may change radically.

There are another four Frenchmen in the top ten tonight. The surprise being that the all conquering Polish team who you would normally expect to be forming a crowd there has been reduced to one sole representative - Pawel Tarnowski - and he just happens to be under 17. It's a different story in the youth women's fleet where six Polish athletes are packed into the 14 and only one French woman, Helene Noesmoen is showing form.

Hanna Zembrzuska from Szczecin leads the Polish pack in second place overall but it is Izzy Hamilton [GBR], the current RS:X Youth World Champion, who reigns supreme after day one. She crushed the opposition posting two bullets and a fourth to build a seven point cushion before we have even reached day two. She was well satisfied with her day's work when I spoke to her in the measurement area after racing. Business-like as always and focused on the week ahead, she too is clearly determined to do the double just like Michalis.

Racing is scheduled to start at 1200 hrs tomorrow, Tuesday with the women first out followed by the yellow group men and finally the blue. The organizers can be well satisfied with their first day. No doubt there are systems to tweak and refine but we're off to a good start to what could be an awesome weeks racing.

Top Five Youth Men
1. Michalis Malekkides [CYP]
2. Thomas Goyard [FRA]
3. Joan Carles Cardona [ESP]
4. Connor Bainbridge [GBR]
5. Pawel Tarnowski [POL]

Top Five Youth Women
1. Izzy Hamilton [GBR]
2. Hanna Zembrzuska [POL]
3. Helene Noesmoen [FRA]
4. Natalia Wojcik [POL]
5. Agnieszka Bilska [POL]
For complete results, please click http://youthworldwindsurfingchampionships2010.rsxclass.com/overall-results/!here.

For more information, please click http://youthworldwindsurfingchampionships2010.rsxclass.com!here.