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28 September 2007, 04:16 pm

SKUDINA Wins Yngling European Title

Tight racing in 25 knots of winds on Thursday

©International Yngling Association

Yngling European Championship 2007

Warnemunde, Germany

Russia's Ekaterina SKUDINA, Diana KRUTZKIKH and Natalia IVANOVA won the ISAF Grade C1 Yngling European Championship title after the final day of racing Warnemunde, Germany was called off.

Severe wind and sea conditions meant the Medal Race scheduled for today was finally cancelled after several hours of postponement. That means that the results of yesterday are now the official Championship results. The winner is Ekaterina SKUDINA, Diana KRUTSKIKH and Natalia IVANOVA (RUS). Silver medal to Mandy MULDER, Brechtje VAN DER WERF and Marje KAMPEN (NED) and the bronze medal to the team of Sofia BEKATOROU, Sofia PAPADOPOULOU and Christina CHARAMOUDANI (GRE).

The storm warning was issued yesterday and because of warning for high sea levels the Sailing Instructions was altered so that boats were allowed to be hauled out of the water. This proved to be a good safety measure by the organization since the entire Yngling dock was under water this morning.

With today's cancellation Thursday's two races proved crucial. Race 9 and 10 were sailed in increasing winds and at the end of the last race the wind was 25 knots and more in the gusts with some gear failure as result. The Norwegian team of Siren SUNDBY, Lise Birgitte FREDRIKSEN and Alexandra KOFOED had to pull out of the race due to a damaged shroud. SUNDBY commented "As soon as it happened we tacked not to risk loosing the mast" The DNF was their second letter score and affectively put them out of the battle for medals, whilst the Russian team of Anna BASALKINA, Vladislava UKRAINCEVA and Ekaterina MAXIMOVA suffered a similar fate.

SKUDINA and her team won the first race of the day, but it was MULDER, VAN DER WERF and KAMPEN who really impressed in the breeze. A third place and a bullet lifted them up the leaderboard to second place overall.

The day of waiting was used by the teams to make plans about future training periods. The next major women's Yngling Championship is the World Championship in February in Miami, USA. Next year's Europeans will be sailed in April in Masnou, Spain.

Results - http://www.yngling.org/finalresults_WEC2007.html

International Yngling Association (As Amended By ISAF)