J/70 BRICS Sailing Championship 2025 in Bodrum, Turkiye - Overall
by Burak Zengin 22 Dec 2025 03:45 PST
18-21 December 2025
On Sunday, 21st of December, it was the last race day and prize-giving ceremony of Leg 2 of the Tenzor International Cup - J/20 Open Winter Series 2025/2026 and J/70 BRICS Championship 2025.
The competition, which brought together participants from 10 countries including China, Türkiye, Russia, India, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Italy, Spain and Germany was memorable not only for its intense sporting contest but also for the severe weather test, which forced adjustments to the racing schedule.
After a fully made training day and three tense races on the first race day in ideal wind, nature threw a challenge to organizers and sailors. New starts were given on Saturday and Sunday, but races were cancelled due to unstable and weak wind that changed direction abruptly. In the end, only three races went to final classification over the three race days, making every start crucial and the competition especially fierce and decisive.
The regatta fulfilled its main objective - becoming a platform for international sports and business dialogue. The honor guests with Governor of Bodrum Mr. Ali Sirmali expressed his best congratulations to the participants and organizers during the prize-giving ceremony. He admitted that Bodrum is one of the best sailing location in Turkiye and excited time the sailors spent together racing fiercely, sharing moments of tension and triumph inspired to hold more and more international competition here.
The winner of both the J/70 BRICS Sailing Championship and the overall of Leg 2 of Tenzor International Cup was the Russian crew Ptichki Sailing Team skippered by Elvira Pinchuk. The team, competing on new boat, demonstrated outstanding consistency.
"This is the team's first international title, we are very happy," shared team tactician Ilya Polishchuk. "We are still working with the boat, getting it up to speed. Our crew staff is quite new, this is only our second regatta racing all together. But overall, we already see very big progress. We wanted to race more in the last days, but nevertheless, this victory is no less sweet and pleasant."
The sensation of the regatta was the second-place finish of the Bars Sailing Team with helmsman Alexey Bunzya. For him, this was the first regatta on a new boat in a new location.
"Of course, for us such a result was a little unexpected," admitted Alexey Bunzya. "The boat is new, we still manage the communication on the boat, so there was undoubtedly a factor of luck here, but we certainly did our our best. A fantastic location, very strong fleet, the whole sailing elite. We are very pleased to be performed so well."
Third place was taken by the Gaswar team helmed by Alexander Romanov. "The impressions are the most positive, a very large number of countries represented," noted Alexander. "Unfortunately, the last two days brought us the 'gift' of no stable wind. We wanted to try and improve our result, but this kind of sport directly depending on the wind. I am grateful to Tenzor Sailing Club, to Andrey Pushkin personally, for organizing events of a high international level."
In the conditions of a short regatta all things should be done perfectly from the beginning. "Russian Bogatyrs" team, competing without their main helmsman, placed 8th, conceding one position to their main rival Tenzor Team. "The races were tough. We lacked a bit of experience here and missed podium. Our helmsman, Taisiia Dorofeeva, found herself for the first time in such a strong and large fleet, but she coped excellently and stayed focused. We improved from race to race and were actually counting more on the last two days with light wind... but, unfortunately, the weather did not permit," analyzed team member Alexander Ekimov.
In the Corinthian division, victory was awarded to the Turkish crew Orient Express helmed by Arif Gürdenli, which also took a high 6th place in the overall standings just behind Hubex team of Anton Frolov. Team ASPAT skippered by Mehmet Okay and Ayaz JR led by Ugur Ayaz became the 2nd and 3rd prize-winners of Corinthians.
The China Changshu Shanghu Lake Team got a great international experience with their sailors finished 17th overall and 9th in BRICS classification and took a special award for its contribution to the development of sailing in BRICS countries. Georgian Sailing team GSC-OneClick led by Kakhaber Noniashvili finished 15th overall with great emotions and ambitious to grow up.
Indian specialist with IRO World Sailing qualification Srikanth Chaturvedi noted the high level of organization and emphasized the importance of holding events in the expanded BRICS+ participation format.
The BRICS Sailing Championship in Bodrum was an important step in strengthening sports and business ties between countries. The organizers announced that this regatta will become annual, and in 2026 will be held in Abu Dhabi at the new Tenzor Marine Sport Club, continuing to unite sailing nations under the flag of friendship and sporting competition.
The regatta was organized by Tenzor Sailing Club Türkiye with the support of the International Association of J/70 class, TAYK and Sailing Federations of Türkiye, India, Russia and China. General Partner of event - Tenzor Consulting Group, partners - Anthaven Resort, Radisson Collection Hotel Bodrum, Nautique Yachting.
Overall Results:
- Ptichki Sailing Team 8pts
- Bars Sailing Team 14pts
- Gaswar 14pts
- Eker Efsane Yogurt 15pts
- Hubex Team 16pts
- Orient Express 18pts
- Tenzor Team 20pts
- Russian Bogatyrs 25pts
- Nautique Yachting 26pts
- Dolce Vita 28pts
- Happyhour JR 33pts
- Team ASPAT 33pts
- IVEDI 34pts
- AYAZ JR 34pts
- GSC-OneClick 44pts
- Ada JR 47pts
- China Changshu Shanghu Lake Team 52pts