470 Europeans gets underway

Sanremo, Italy (May 9, 2019) – The gulf of Sanremo lived up to its fame, delivering perfect conditions for the opening day of the 470 Europeans. Blue skies, a warm sun, and an easterly exceeding 15 knots welcomed the 110 teams for three races in the Olympic doublehander.

The crews, 70 male teams split in two groups and 40 women teams, reached the race area on time for a noon start, but were forced to wait a bit longer offshore for the wind to set in direction and intensity.

After nearly two hours, the international Race Committee was able to fire the Europeans’ first signal for the women’s fleet, shortly followed by the two men’s groups. The first start was given under black flag for everyone which disqualified several crews found over the line.

UK’a Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre, scored two wins that put them on top of the Women’s table, in front of Israel’s Gil Cohen and Non Lasry, that grabbed a victory in the second race, with Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz close the day in third overall.

It’s interesting to note that the first ten female crews all come from Europe, whilst the first non-European team is Australia’s Nia Jeerwood and Monique Devries. The usually strong duo from China, Mengxi Wei and Haiyan Gao, didn’t look particularly at ease in today’s strong wind and are in fifteenth position.

In the Men’s fleet, Australian stars Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan bagged a clean score with three bullets. But behind them the Europeans were in the spotlight with Austria’s David Bargher and Lukas Mahr leading on Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez and Panagiotis Mantis teaming with Pavlos Kagialis from Greece. The reigning European champions Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom from Sweden close the day in sixth place overall.

Representing North America are three teams from the USA: Stuart McNay and David Hughes in 12th, Atlantic Brugman and Nora Brugman in 31st, and Nikole Barnes and Lara Dallman-Weiss who did not race today due to illness.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for a south-westerly wind of around 8 to 10 knots in the morning, progressively increasing in the afternoon hours. First starting signal is scheduled for 11:00, and the Race Committee intends to have up to three races for the women and two races for the men.

The 470 Europeans consist of a series of fleet races and a final medal race, if more than five qualifying races have been completed, for the top 10 teams in each fleet. The racing will be on windward/leeward or trapezoid courses. The championship has an open format, that means that non-Europeans crews can compete but cannot run for the European title.

Racing at the 470 European Championship is on May 9 to 14 in Marina degli Aregai, Italy.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Carla Anselmi