Great balance in all categories with the podium positions all to be decided Torbole (Lake Garda, Italy)

After Thursday’s rain and cold weather, the regattas of the Techno 293 European Youth Sailing Championships are back in full swing on the waters of Torbole, Upper Lake Garda, one day from the conclusion. Peculiar scenery this morning with snow-capped mountains, but a fairly warm sun: the day started well and in the late morning the wind from the south began to blow steadily with all the fleets able to resume racing on the two race courses, thanks to the two FIV Race Committees, who set up the race courses in good time, ready to welcome the 270 racers. The wind was fairly steady, not strong, but often planing.

Under 13s (yellow fleet)
The youngest members of the fleet, 53 in all, sailed three good races, taking their total to six races: the final day on Saturday promises to be a good duel, especially between the top two, who are just one point behind. In the lead is Turkey’s Sarp Sarli, followed by Greece’s Nikolopoulos; a little further back in second and third place are Italians Casano and Burkhart, an athlete from Circolo Surf Torbole, the event organisers. First female was Turkey’s Parla Kabasakal.
Under 15 M (green fleet) and F (pink fleet)
Even among the men’s under-15s there is great balance, especially in the first two positions: equal points between Germany’s Schleicher and Greece’s Ioannou, first and second respectively. Third at 7 points is the Greek Giannakopoulos and fourth, the first Italian, Luca Pacchiotti of the nearby Fraglia Vela Malcesine, 7 points behind the podium. The Estonian Kivistik leads with a fair lead in the Under 15 women’s category; she is followed by Circolo Surf Torbole athlete Gaia Bonezzi (today 1-3-5) and the Greek Anagnostou, third, three points behind the Italian.
Under 17 M (red fleet) and F (white fleet)
After 7 races, the Spaniard Tor seems to be without rivals, who with 4 firsts and two seconds (one 14 discarded) is the absolute leader of the provisional ranking with 8 points ahead of the Greek Koutelas. First Italian, in fourth place, Riccardo Poledrini, 9 points behind third.
Among the girls under 17 in the lead the Turkish Güven, 8 points ahead of the Czech Lojinova; third the Cagliari Teresa Medde followed at 4 points by the Greek Anagnostou and the Turkish Basdag.
PLUS M and F (blue fleet)
Two Italians are in the podium zone among the Techno Plus, one in the men’s and one in the women’s field: among the men, the Greek Kokkinakis is in the lead, with 3 points ahead of Circolo Surf Torbole’s Marco Guida Di Ronza, in turn followed by another Greek Panagopoulos, just one point behind him. Among the girls in the lead the Sardinian Angelina Medde, just one point behind the Polish Falkiewicz; third at 3 points from Medde Veronica Poledrini: also in this category will be battle for the podium positions.
Saturday was the final day of this Techno 293 European Championship, organised as the first event of the season by Circolo Surf Torbole. Despite the absence of several northern European nations that were unable to train in the winter in order to arrive prepared for this start of the year, there was a large number of participants with almost 300 athletes. Numbers that demonstrate the great liveliness of this class, which prepares the very young sailboarders for the next steps in windsurfing.
Many podiums will be decided with the last races on Saturday, which will start as scheduled at 12 noon.