39th Lake Garda Meeting Optimist - Day 1
by Fraglia Vela Riva 21 May 2021 05:53 AEST
20-23 May 2021
39th Lake Garda Meeting Optimist day 1 © Fraglia Vela Riva / Zerogradinord
The 39th edition of the Garda Optimist Meeting, an iconic event for the world of youth sailing, kicked off today and, despite the difficult times still dictated by the pandemic, managed to attract over six hundred sailors for more than twenty countries to Lake Garda.
The racing started in light Ora wind conditions that engaged the participants, divided into four fleets for Juniors and in a single fleet for the younger Cadets.
In the crowded Junior fleet, the leader after Day 1 is Quan Adriano Cardi who, with two consecutive victories in the Blue division, left behind the local sailor Alex Demurtas, who closed today's racing with a third and first place in the Green fleet, and Alessandro Maria Ricci (6-1 in the Red fleet), third overall.
After the all-Italian top-three, we find in the standings the German sailor David Plettner (2-5 in the Green fleet) and the Swedish sailor Selma Hard (2-7 in the yellow fleet), first in the female ranking.
A girl leads the ranking of the Cadets: the sailor from Fraglia Vela Malcesine Irene Faini set her rhythm to the whole fleet with a first and a second place. She is followed in the ranking by Jesper Karslen of Circolo Vela Toscolano Maderno (2-7), second equals with Marco Aloisi of Brenzone Nautical Club (4-5). Artur Brighents (7-3) and the Andrea Demurtas, winner of the second race of today (11-1), close the top five.
The racing will restart tomorrow at midday for the second of the three days of qualifications, preceding the finals on Sunday.
The complete rankings can be found here...