News & Features | ISAF | World Sailing | Official Site : FANTELA On Top

News

29 July 2005, 11:20 am

FANTELA On Top

470 Junior World Championship 2005

St. Petersburg, Russia

After two days of racing at the 470 Junior World Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia, recent 470 Junior European Champions Sime FANTELA and Igor MARENIC (CRO) lead the fleet with three bullets from four races.

Day one of the Championship began with rain, which fortunately cleaned up, and a light south to south west wind of five to seven knots took over, increasing to eight and some times nine knots.

Boats raced in two groups, red and green, established by the Seeding Committee.

Amongst the red group the battle in race one soon turned into a three way competition between Eyal LEVIN and Yam AMIR (ISR), Luca and Roberto DUBBINI (ITA) and Johny MCGOVERN and Tom MAPPLEBECK (GBR). It was the Brits who came up on top taking the bullet, although they have been unable to repeat that performance since and lie 13th overall.

In the green group Michal WYOSOCKI and Piotr MALINOWSKY (POL) took an early lead whilst FANTELA and MARENIC found themselves some way behind the leading group. However the Croatian pair are sailing on top form at the moment and speed past the leaders to take a narrow win over Greece's Vasilas GEORGIOS and Evangelos MITTAKIS.

FANTELA and MARENIC took an early lead in race two before a sudden windshift on the approach to the first windward mark suddenly relegated them to sixth position. Once again they fought back, although they could not haul in race winners Bertrand NUN and Nicolas ANDRIEU (FRA) and had to settle for second place.

In the red group LEVIN and AMIR took the bullet in race two to claim the lead after day one.

Day two started with excellent conditions for sailing, with a southwest wind of 13-14 knots. FANTELA and MARENIC took full advantage winning both races in the green group to take the overall lead of the fleet. LEVIN and AMIR dropped to seventh place in race three, but another bullet in race four keeps them in touch with the leaders. A second and a third place sees GEORGIOS and MITTAKIS rise to third overall.

The final day of the qualifying series takes place today before the final series from 30 July-2 August.

Top Ten After Four Races

Pos	Nation	Helm	Crew	Group	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	CRO	Sime FANTELA	Igor MARENIC	Red	1	(2)	1	1	3
2	ISR	Eyal LEVIN	Yam AMIR	Green	2	1	(7)	1	4
3	GRE	Vasilas GEORGIOS	Evangelos MITTAKIS	Green	2	(6)	3	2	7
4	FRA	Alexandre ROSSIGNOL	David BOUDGOURD	Red	(8)	5	5	2	12
5	BLR	Daniil ADZINTSOV	Yury POLZIN	Red	4	(10)	4	4	12
6	POL	Patryk PIASECKI	Jacek PRZYBYLAK	Green	7	3	3	(BFD)	13
7	FRA	Nicolas DURON	Sebastien DURAN	Green	5	4	6	(10)	15
8	ISR	Gerber GAL	Yaral BOTZER	Red	9	(10)	1	7	17
9	ITA	Luca DUBBINI	Roberto DIBBANI	Red	3	6	8	(10)	17
10	FRA	Loic LE Bacquer	Brice BAIZEZ	Green	7	3	8	(13)	18