Top ranked skippers fight for European Match Racing Title

by Dan Ibsen on 13 Aug 2016 After three days of intense racing in the EUROSAF Match Racing Open European Championship 2016, topped ranked skippers Joachim Aschenbrenner (WR 9) and Mati Sepp (WR 11) are still favorites to win the title.

Saturday was the third day during the EUROSAF Match Racing Open European Championship 2016 in Svendborg, Denmark. Until now there has been a steady southwesterly breeze all the days, which means that all scheduled races has been carried through.

Saturday morning the last couple of races in the Round Robin series finished, with the young Danish Joachim Aschenbrenne winning all his 11 matches. Team Aschenbrenner earlier this year won the EUROSAF Match Racing Youth European Championship 2016 and two years ago he also won the ISAF Youth Match Racing World Championship 2014, followed up by a silver medal in 2015. In the beginning of 2016 the team finished fifth in the final event in the World Match Racing Tour I Malaysia, and they are still chasing their first senior title. Winning the Round Robin qualified the Dane directly to the semifinals.

Markus Rönnberg (FIN) finished second in the Round Robin with nine wins. The contest for the rest of the places in the Second Stage was intense and Matti Sepp (EST) finished third with Pierre Rimbault (FRA) on forth place, both with six wins. Three other teams all qualified with five wins out 11 races, and this was Antii Lutha (FIN), Max Trippolt (AUT) and Valeiro Galati (ITA).

Mati Sepp (EST) and Pierre Rimbault (FRA) Both beat their opponents three - zero, but the last match needed six races in order to find a winner. After for races Valeiro Galati (ITA) and Markus Rönnberg (FIN) had both won two races but the Italian was penalized for a collision and scores minus 0,75. But after winning the next two races the Italian Team qualified for the Semifinals as the last team.

The first races in the semifinals took place Saturday afternoon and the results carried through to Sunday morning is one - one between Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) and Pierre Rimbault, and one - zero between Mati Sepp (EST) and Valeiro Galati (ITA).

The semifinals will be finished Sunday morning and finals Sunday afternoon.

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