RS-X Youth Worlds Days 1 and 2 + Video

by RS:X Class on 26 Oct 2011 The 2011 RS:X Youth World Windsurfing Championships are underway in Cagliari, Sardinia and on the second day of competition, competitors were welcomed by grey skies, a challenging beach break, and 15-20 knot winds.

As the Race Committee battled their way out to the race area in 3m swells, competitors were looking at the rolling waves crashing onto the beach, wondering how on earth they were going to make it out to the race area. Whilst the first couple of sailors struggled, the majority left the beach without incident although there were some casualties with a few broken masts and a few bruised egos.

In the RS:X Youth Men's fleet, Pawel Tarnowski (POL 182) brutally highlighted the fact that consistency would be the key to being the RS:X Youth World Windsurfing Champion by adding three more bullets to maintain his perfect scoreline of first places. The chasing pack of Frenchmen Louis Giard (FRA 155) and Fabian Pic (FRA 7) were not daunted and added a safe scoreline of 1,2,3 and 3,1,1 respectively to keep the pressure on Pawel. With the discount coming into play now, Tarnowski is on a perfect five, Giard is on eight points and Pic on nine. Plenty to play for.

In the U17, Joe Bennett (GBR 49) has maintained his place at the top despite suffering a broken mast in the mornings surf. Jo managed to re-rig a new mast and get out to the race course to post a 8,11,14 which will leave him in 12th place overall. Omer Sofer (ISR 8) is in second in the U17 fleet, 17th overall, with Dante Chiapello back in third in 26th overall.

Tomorrow will see the RS:X Youth Men's fleet racing in Gold and Silver groups so round one is now over and the top 50% will fight it out for podium places. With all of the first places from the two fleets posted by the top four sailors, it will be interesting to see who has the muscle and the temperament to push through the next two days and crush the competition on medal race day.

Over in the RS:X Youth Women's fleet, is another Pole with a perfect scoreline of just five points after the discard. Agnieszka Bilska - POL 09 - may have slipped marginally in the first race of the day by posting a third but came back to fire in two bullets to maintain her dominance in the breeze over Kamila Smektala - POL 104.

Smetkala won this battle at the RS:X Youth European Windsurfing Championships in Bulgaria a month ago so it is certain that these two will take it to the wire. Laura Kishon - ISR 34 - who filled out the podium at the Europeans is not having the same start to the regatta and scored an average 7,9,7 for the day to leave her in seventh place and 22 points off the leader. A lot of work to do if she wants to get onto the podium at this event.

Further down the field it is another young Israeli, Shani Rottenberg - ISR 100 - who had a fantastic day to post 1,2,2 and sit in fifth overall – and lead the U17 field. Noelle Finch (GBR 703) is sitting in second place in the U17 and ninth overall and will need to work hard to make up the points lost today.

It’s easy to focus on the sailing conditions but credit should be given today to the Race Committees who managed to run three races in some very difficult conditions. With all of the equipment breakages from today’s washing machine surf conditions competitors will be hoping for a quieter day tomorrow and will be able to concentrate on the racing and not just surviving.

Day one and a total of 400 nervous windsurfers were on site early for a 10.30 start. The six groups of Techno 293s were allocated to the Alpha Course and the three groups of RS:X Youth plus the Raceboard Masters to the Bravo.

The trouble was that the wind was just not co-operating. It was glassy at 100hrs so up went the AP - postponement - flags and we settled in to wait mercifully, not for long. It was time for action with everyone going out into a building onshore breeze. The first starts of the day were in the 9-11 knot range - marginal for the youths with the 8.5m sail and 60cms fin - and the second in the 11 to 13 knot range... full planing and steady. With three races on the cards, the race committee sent the fleets ashore after race 2 to wait for the wind to fill in again.

It has backed off after race 2 and looked like it was going to take it's leave but thanks to the sun who made a timely appearance, the racers were called out again for race 3 which was completed in planing conditions.

Over in the Youth men's fleet Pawel Tarnowski - POL182 - continued where he left off just a few weeks ago at the RS:X Youth European Windsurfing Championships putting in a series of bullets to finish the day in top spot having collected just three points. Louis Giard - FRA155 - who had fought Pawel all the way in Bulgaria is determined to go one better here at the Youth Worlds. He is just two points back with Sam Sills - GBR60 - in third again just two points off the pace.



Tom Squires - GBR931 - was going well having placed second in the first pair only to spoil his day by placing 35th in the third. You certainly cannot win a big championship on day one but you can blow your chances or at the very least put unnecessary pressure on yourself. Tom has done the latter and cannot now make another mistake if his hopes of returning the top five are to be fulfilled.

Kiran Badloe - NED194 - the super tall Dutch flier had a similar disaster in the third as well so has to put in a consistent performance tomorrow to give the first discard a chance to repair the damage after the fifth race.

Over in the RS:X Youth Women's fleet, it was another Pole to show a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet. This time, Agnieszka Bilska - POL9 - who did the treble. Three first places on day one now give her the luxury of a six point lead over Kamila Smetkala - POL104 - who won in Burgas to take the RS:X Youth European crown by a spectacular 21 points. It seems that Agnieszka may have been saving her aggression for the RS:X Youth Worlds !

Back in third is Jeanne Dantes - FRA4 - She is leading the peleton who are in a tight bunch which includes Noelle Finch - GBR703, Veronica Fanciulli - ITA82, Barbara Dmuchowska - POL118 and Laura Kishon - ISR34.

The forecast for tomorrow is good. A stronger breeze is anticipated so another three races are certainly possible. The discard will be taken after the fifth and the top 50% will qualify for the gold fleet tomorrow night. It's game on with 15 races scheduled. The last of which will be a medal race counting double points.

Boys - provisional results after 6 races

pos.	sail number	name	points	r1	r2	r3	r4	r5	r6
1	POL 182	Pawel TARNOWSKI	5,0	(1)	1	1	1	1	1
2	FRA 155	Louis GIARD	8,0	2	1	2	1	2	(3)
3	FRA 7	Fabian PIC	9,0	3	(6)	1	3	1	1
4	GBR 60	Sam SILLS	11,0	1	2	4	2	2	(6)
5	GBR 931	Tom SQUIRES	17,0	2	2	(35)	3	3	7
6	DEN 158	Sebastian FLEISCHER	17,0	4	3	3	4	(9)	3
7	ESP 36	Mateo SANZ LANZ	23,0	3	8	2	6	4	(9)
8	FRA 34	Paul ROZIER	23,0	(14)	5	6	5	5	2
9	ISR 10	Dan DAVIDOVICH	25,0	10	(18)	5	2	3	5
10	NED 194	Kiran BADLOE	25,0	4	7	(27)	6	4	4

Girls

pos.	sail number	name	points	r1	r2	r3	r4	r5	r6
1	POL 9	Agnieszka BILSKA	5,0	1	1	1	(3)	1	1
2	POL 104	Kamila SMEKTALA	15,0	4	3	2	(8)	3	3
3	POL 118	Barbara DMUCHOWSKA	20,0	3	2	(13)	2	8	5
4	FRA 4	Jeanne DANTES	26,0	2	5	7	5	7	(9)
5	ISR 100	Shani ROTTENBERG, U17	27,0	16	(20)	6	1	2	2
6	ITA 82	Veronica FANCIULLI	37,0	7	4	4	11	11	(14)
7	ISR 34	Laura KISHON	37,0	9	(11)	5	7	9	7
8	FRA 161	Léa MATTEI	38,0	(12)	12	10	4	4	8
9	GBR 703	Noelle FINCH, U17	39,0	5	7	3	(21)	12	12
10	BLR 737	Anastasya VALKEVICH	41,0	(18)	8	9	15	5	4

For full results, click Event website