Star Europeans - Polish crew leads after first race

by ISCYRA on 18 Apr 2012 There were strong 20 knot winds for the first race of the Star European Championship. This resulted in many retirements given the particular conditions of the sea. After a particularly difficult race and some retirements, the first place spot in standings is occupied by Poland's (Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki. In second place are Germans Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy and coming in third are Swedes Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen.

Among the many sailors that are taking part in the Star European Championship, Kusznierewicz / Zycki, and Loof / Salminen, have already qualified for the upcoming Olympic Games. Besides these talented sailors, others that have qualified for London 2012 are the Germans Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen (fourth place for them today), the Norwegians Sigurd Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen (fifth place today) and the Portuguese Alfonso Domingos and Federico Melo (tenth). Diego Negri and Enrico Voltolini, European Champions in 2011, are now in sixth place.

The opening ceremony of the Championship took place yesterday at Porto Vesco, with the young pupils of the Sanremo Sailing School in a primary role when raising the flags of the nineteen countries which are taking part in the Championship. The ceremony was particularly moving and involved the whole fleet that, despite the rain, attended the ceremony from the quay.

Tonight all competitors will be guests of the Sanremo Royal Hotel for the cocktail party.

Races Two and Three: Two races were run today for the Star European Championship / Casino Cup, with wind around eight knots. Poland's Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki, Star World champions in 2008, kept the lead they have had the first race on Sunday.

In race two and three, they finished third and second, now having a total of six points, exactly half of the points of the second place team, Swedes Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen. Third place, in the overall standings, are Norwegians Sigurd Melleby Eivind and Morland Pedersen Petter, improving their ranking from Sunday's standings. In fourth place are the Portuguese Alfonso Domingos and Federico Melo, who won race three, while Italians Diego Negri and Enrico Voltolini moved up and are now fifth.

Common opinion of almost all sailors taking part in the Star European Championship is that races are being run in extremely difficult and various conditions of sea and winds and that every minimal mistake can cause delays and gaps that are hard to overcome. Clear proof of the risk is what happened to Germans Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen who, despite their victory in race two, moved down to seventh place, due to a poor placing in race three.

Day three of racing will start tomorrow, Tuesday, April 17, at 11 am. Results for three races on April 15-16:

Star

 

Place	Boat	Skipper	Crew	Sail #:	Fleet	1	2	3	Total
1	BLondynka	Kusznierewicz Mateusz	Zycki Dominik	POL 8417	ISOL	1.0	3.0	2.0	6
2	Berg Propulsion	Loof Fredrik	Salminen Max	SWE 8450	Bk	3.0	6.0	3.0	12
3	Team Lode Star	Melleby Eivind Sigurd	Pedersen Petter Morland	NOR 8317	Nor	5.0	5.0	4.0	14
4	Cascais	Domingos Alfonso	Melo Federico	POR 8309	CP	10.0	4.0	1.0	15
5	Alba	Negri Diego	Voltolini Enrico	ITA 8452	VE	6.0	7.0	6.0	19
6	The Hammer	Hestbek Michael	Olesen Claus	DEN 8433	DF	7.0	2.0	11.0	20
7	Audi Sailing Team Germany	Stanjek Robert	Kleen Frithjof	GER 8340	BF	4.0	1.0	21.0	26
8	Ariela	Arapov Mate	Sitic Ante	CRO 7287	Dal	9.0	9.0	9.0	27
9	Croate two	Misura Marin	Barac Tonko	CRO 8360	Kv	12.0	10.0	13.0	35
10	Arctur	GUREYEV Vasyl	KOROTKOV Volodymyr	UKR 8247	Ukr	11.0	20.0	5.0	36