LADIES TEAMS DOMINATE ON DAY 1 OF 420 JUNIOR EUROPEANS

One hundred and thirteen 420 teams from 19 nations are gathered in Riva, Italy for the 2012 420 Junior European Championships.

Six different race winners across today’s six races, and it is the 420 Ladies teams who are dominating on the leaderboard, holding three of the top 5 places.

The Championship is being raced over a 12 race qualification and final series from Saturday 11 August though to Friday 17 August, with one reserve day scheduled. The Junior Europeans is restricted to teams who are aged 18 or under in the year of the Championship. The initial qualifying series of a scheduled 6 races over three days sees teams split into three fleets – yellow, blue, red – and re-seeded after each day of racing. Based on their finishing position in the qualification series, teams will then be allocated to gold, silver and bronze fleets for the 6 race final series.

420 Fleet

Lake Garda is a stunningly attractive location, but not the easiest to read from a sailing perspective. Today, the breeze went from flat calm at the launching time of 1200 to a breeze of around 8-10 knots for the two races.

Wins in race 1 went to David Charles/Alex Charles (ESP) in the yellow fleet, Sebastiano Baranzini/Matteo Colombo (SUI) in the blue fleet and Jess Lavery/Georgie Mothersele (GBR) in the red fleet.

Onto race 2 and another three different teams took the gun, with Ilaria Paternoster/Benedetta Di Salle (ITA) in the yellow fleet, Oliver Oczycz/Daniel Hoffmann (GER) in the blue fleet and Deniz Bagci/Kaan Tuan (TUR) in the red.

Early days, but important days, as teams jostle to secure their positions in the qualification series.

Day 1 glory to Paternoster/Benedetta Di Salle who have regained the form that won them the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth World Championship crown last month, and end the opening day on top of the leaderboard with a 2,1 scoreline. The pair seemed to struggle with the conditions at the 420 Worlds in Austria, finishing fifth overall, and no doubt have added motivation as they race on home waters here at the Junior Europeans.

Brothers David and Alex Charles, who picked up the 420 boys’ gold medal at the ISAF Youth Worlds and the silver medal at the recent 420 Worlds, are tied on points with the Italians from their 1,2 posting.

David and Alex Charles (ESP)

Jess Lavery/Georgie Mothersele (GBR) were the other ladies team to secure a race win, which places them in fifth overall. Lavery said, “It was a great start to our regatta. We couldn’t really ask for better. The wind was hard to know. It didn’t look like the normal Garda right hand side track and we went out left and got a really big left hand shift about a third of the way up. That took us the whole way to the mark and we kind of went from there.”

A few years of Optimist events on Lake Garda has given Lavery some knowledge of the localized Garda breeze, “I had an Opi Europeans here about four years ago now and I think I did two Gardas here but it is quite different in Opis to 420s, because you can hit the cliffs better in 420s.”

“I quite enjoy it. It means you can give them a run for their money,” added Lavery on the challenge of racing in one Open fleet, rather than the separate Open and Ladies fleets at the 420 Worlds. “It means you can initially for the qualifying series sail your own race, sail quick and get results. And then hopefully if you qualify for the gold fleet you race from there and also race against the girls. I enjoy it.”

Pieter Goedhar/Lars van Stekelenborg (NED) and Tim Fischer/Sebastian Ziegler (GER)

Provisional Top 10 Overall
1. Ilaria Paternoster/Benedetta Di Salle (ITA) - 3 pts
2. David Charles/Alex Charles (ESP) - 3 pts
3. Francesco Rebaudi/Pietro Canepa (ITA) - 5 pts
4. Lena Stückl/Franziska Máege (GER) - 6 pts
5. Jess Lavery/Georgie Motherselle (GBR) - 9 pts
6. Gianmaria Caiconti/Edoardo Portoraro (ITA) - 11 pts
7. Tim Fischer/Sebastian Ziegler (GER) - 11 pts
8. Thomas PONTHIEU/Valentino DI SALVIA (FRA) - 12 pts
9. Craig Dibb/Charlie Cox (GBR) - 12 pts
10. Carlos Castelao/Jorge Lorenzo (ESP) - 13 pts

Renowned coach Jim Saltonstall is providing his expertise and insight for the qualification series, taking on the water video footage which is then commentated in the post-race debrief. A full house tonight as teams took advantage of Saltonstall’s feedback, which as always was delivered in an amusing and direct fashion.

Two races are scheduled for Sunday 12 August 2012 with the first warning signal at 1300 hours.

The 2012 420 Junior European Championship is taking place at the same time as the 2012 470 Junior European Championship, a partnership between the two classes to support the natural transition from 420 to 470.

Many of the 420 teams who competed at the 2012 420 World Championships, which ended on Sunday 5 August in Austria, have descended on Riva. Some of the 420 Worlds teams have moved onto their next challenge, with several making the step to compete in the 470 Junior Europeans.

Brothers Alex and George Kavas concluded their 420 career with the gold medal at the 2012 420 Worlds, and are now forging their next move in the 470. Josh Franklin/Alex Gough of Australia finished fifth at the 420 Worlds and are also trying their prowess in the 470 Men fleet. In the 470 Women, Chile’s Nadja Horiwitz/Sofia Middleton who finished with the silver medal at the 420 Worlds are also giving the 470 class a go.

The 2012 420 Junior European Championships is being hosted by Fraglia Vela Riva in partnership with the Federazione Italiana Vela, the Italian 420 National Class Association and the International 420 Class Association.

Results

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Top Image: Ilaria Paternoster/Benedetta Di Salle (ITA) © Elena Giolai

11/8/2012 20:08