RS Aero World Championship at Calasetta, Sardinia, Italy - Overall
by Elena Giolai 30 Jul 13:16 PDT
26-30 July 2023
Youth, Junior, Overall as well as Master and Grandmaster titles awarded
The fifth World Championship of the RS Aero class, organised in Calasetta by the Lega Navale del Sulcis, in collaboration with the Italian Sailing Federation and the RS Aero class, ended with two more races and a thermal mistral wind of 8-10 knots (12 races in total).
The final day was certainly important because the general classification changed in several classes and categories. For Italy, great satisfaction came from the young people, who conquered many podium positions in the Youth Championship, with 4 golds between under 17 and under 22, both male and female.
In particular, in the RS Aero 7 youth class (under 22) gold and rainbow title for the Roman Leopoldo Sirolli (Tognazzi Marine Village), followed by the two Swedes Wahlber and Warnber, second and third. Among the under-17s (juniors), two more rainbow titles respectively for Enrico Loi from Cagliari (WC Cagliari), ninth overall in the RS Aero 5 class, and among the girls for Chiara Sussarello (LNI Sulcis), followed by the silver of New Zealand's Redshaw-Nalder and bronze for Ludovica Pintus. Junior men, silver and bronze for Club Nautico Rimini's Giacomo Zanzini and Mattia Monti. Blue and Sardinian hat-trick among the RS Aero 5 youth girls: in addition to the aforementioned title for Ludovica Cui, silver and bronze for Sara Murru and Chiara Sussarello, both from the Lega Navale del Sulcis, the club organising the Championship. In the men's RS Aero 5 youth category a Swedish victory with Elliot hellstrom, silver for the Briton Ripley, and bronze for the other Swede Almersson.
The other titles awarded:
- RS Aero 9: victory for Dan Falk, who managed to overtake his compatriot Madhavan with two firsts, albeit in a tie.
- RS Aero 7: final burst by Britain's Peter Barton, who regained the lead thanks to a 2-1 win, which allowed him to win the title, also in a tie with compatriot Jack Miller, who was second due to worse partial scores than his opponent. Germany's Juliane Barthel won the RS Aero 7 women's title.
- RS Aero 6: World champion Rhett Gowans of Australia, who led the entire event. Among the women, undisputed victory went to the Ukrainian Sofiia Naumenko, third overall.
- RS Aero 5: overall and women's victory by Britain's Chloe George, who reached the podium with her little son.
Kudos to the Lega Navale del Sulcis for the organisation both at sea and ashore: the club not only had a large and capable competitive team engaged in the championship (and in which it won youth titles and medals), but was also able to involve the club's younger members to help with many valuable tasks, which contributed to the success of the organisation.
The RS Aero World Championship was not only a sporting, cultural and social event, but also a humanitarian one: given the Ukrainian participation of Sofiia Naumenko (RS 6) and Boris Mezhibovskiy, the latter racing for the USA but born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when the country was still part of the USSR, a fund-raising campaign was set up during the championship for three pro-Ukrainian associations: each racer who joined the campaign added a small yellow-and-blue adhesive flag to their sail to place under their country's flag.
The associations to which donations can be made are as follows:
More Information: