2021 Optimist Team Racing World Championship at Fraglia Vela Riva, Lake Garda - Overall

Italy win the 2021 Optimist Team Racing World Championship © Matias Capizzano / www.capizzano.com

The Italian flag flies high over Riva del Garda, to celebrate the Team Racing Optimist World Champions that, once again, has been won by Team Italy.

After two days of racing and over one hundred races completed by 48 Nations, the Italian team made up of Quan Adriano Cardi, Alessandro Cirinei, Alex Demurtas, Lorenzo Ghirotti and Lisa Vucetti won the World title for the second time in a row. The Thai team, considered among the favourites on the eve of the Championship, was beaten 2-0 in the final. The bronze medal went Portugal, who had eliminated Team USA in the previous round.

Marcello Meringolo, coach of the Italian team, commented: "What a great satisfaction to put the seal on this World Championship event: the team never gave up, even in the most clear moments of difficulty. Bringing the title back home after the victory in Antigua in 2019 is an even greater satisfaction. There could not have been a better way to honour the memory of Norberto Foletti, who recently left us and would have been so proud of this victory."

Italy win the 2021 Optimist Team Racing World Championship - photo © Zerogradinord

Full of pride are also the words of Walter Cavallucci, new Secretary General of the Italian Optimist Class Association: "Great sporting result for our team, but what I want to highlight is also the human part of this victory: the Team Race is a discipline in which each team member must know how to put the interest of the group ahead of their own result. While other international teams train all year with the same composition for Team Racing, we have built the team starting from the five guys that had been selected for the individual World Championship. They were very good at finding their synergy in such a short time and bringing home such an important result. With AICO, we have always invested in Team Racing in our National Agonistic Group, and we want to continue in this direction."

This concludes the section of Team Racing in the 2021 Optimist World Championship, which tomorrow will resume with the Individual Worlds, where the Thai sailor Weka Bhanuband controls the ranking after three days of qualification, followed by the Brazilian Alex Di Francesco Kuhl and the Italian Alex Demurtas.

The 2021 Optimist World Championship is hosted by Fraglia Vela Riva in collaboration with FIV, IODA, AICO, Riva del Garda Fierecongressi, North Lake Garda and Trentino.

All updates on the racing are being published on the Optimist World Championship 2021 website at 2021worlds.optiworld.org