The wind blew more steadily for the second day of the Techno 293 World Championships in Brest allowing three races for the 400 windsurfers. [more]
2014 European Champion, Tom Monnet, representing France at the forthcoming Youth Olympic Games, is top of the youth u17 leaderboard with two firsts and a second in the blue group today. Ikeda Kensei, representing Japan at Nanjing, took two bullets in the yellow fleet and is three points behind. Third, fourth and fifth positions are occupied by Israelis Yoav Cohen, Saar Meents and Itay Barzilay with Russian Maxim Tokarev close behind.
French girl Lucie Pianazza is stamping her authority over the u17 girls fleet, winning all four races of the championship so far. She is 7 points clear of her closest rival Mariam Sekhposyan from the Baltic Coast of Russia. Both girls will be competing at Nanjing. Mirroring the u17 boys, the next three places on the leaderboard are occupied by Israelis, Shoval Ravitzky, Katy Spychakov and Maya Morris.
Competitors arrived around 11am at the race village, but had to wait until the wind picked up as the northeast prevailing wind combined with the thermal wind, delayed by cloud cover in the morning.
The first start signals were sounded around 15:30. All fleets completed three races on the three courses spread north to south of the bay, but not all in the same conditions: the juniors, closer to the bridge, felt more the influence of the predominately northern breeze.
Almost thirty nations have responded to the call of this international competition and each of these countries has different weather and water conditions. Many youngsters found it difficult to master the challenging conditions of Brest where tactics and the ability to read the water play an important part.
Italy is one of the nations most represented after France. Mauro Covre, the coach of the Italian national team: “We won two medals at the ISAF World Championships in Portugal: Mattia Camboni and Marta Maggetti flew the colours of our tricolor. We hope to have good results although our athletes are accustomed to shorter waves, winds more unstable and stronger.”
The Tunisians were satisfied with their first sail in the bay of Brest because, apart from the temperature of the water being a little too cold for their taste, they felt at home. Ons Meliani representing the Tunisian Sailing Federation said, “our two youngsters defending the Tunisian flag, have adapted well to the water because the weather is quite like ours: not a lot of wind and thermal breezes.”
If the Tunisians were comfortable, the eight Japanese engaged in this championship were a little disoriented. Ryohei Ishii, 19 years is a native of Osaka: “These weather conditions are totally different and it is not easy for us to adapt. We are generally accustomed to more light conditions and for us the water is warmer! This is the first time I have left Japan to participate in a competition and I am delighted to be here.”
The weather should remain the same for Wednesday. Competition continues until Saturday 26 July.
RESULTS after 4:
BOYS u17 / BOYS u15 / T293+ Men
GIRLS u17 / GIRLS u15 / T293+ Women
