No Wind On Last Day

Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week has just ended, where it was held at the venue and waters of the 1992 Olympic Regatta, Barcelona, Spain.

Yesterday saw the close of Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week-Trofeo Ciutat of Barcelona, an ISAF Grade 2 event which attracted more than 300 entries from around the world.

The Ciutat Trophy, which is presented to the best crew of the championship, was awarded to Iker Martinez de Lizarduy and Xabier Fernandez who won six of the nine race series in the 49er fleet.

There follows a wrap-up of the some of the results of the Olympic class events. For full event reports, results and photos, go to the links at the bottom of this report.

– Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez gave no option to their rivals to even have a pot at the head of the fleet, not surprising when they placed 2nd at the Worlds in 2001. However, chasing them hard were the Spanish pairing of Santi Lopez-Vázquez/Javier de la Plaza (2nd on world rankings) who placed 2nd and 3rd were the Ukrainian team and world ranking leaders of Luka Rodino/George Leonchuk.

Star – In the Star Class Jose Maria van der Ploeg and Diego Fructuoso (ESP) finished where they started in pole position to take their place on the winner’s podium. Spanish crews finished in 2nd and 3rd with Gonzalo Araujo/Marcos Churches and Roberto Bermúdez/Gabriel de Llano respecitively.

470 Men – Gustavo Martinez and Tunte Stonecutter (ESP), who are currently placed 4th on the world rankings went into the last day with a one point lead on world ranking leaders and current World Champions Andreas Kosmatopoulos/Kostas Trigonis (GRE) and no doubt were relieved that the no-wind final day saw no racing. In 3rd, a position held from the start were the Argentinean pairing of Javier Conte/Juan who are currently 14th on the world rankings, their highest position since August 2000, and reigning Olympic bronze medallists.

Yngling – Whilst Mònica Azón/DianaCuadras/Julie García were gunning for first, with a few place changes in the final races, they had to be satisfied with second place, with the Danish crew helmed by Trine Palludan/Christina Otzen/Ida Brunn
ranked 27th in the world taking pole position. 3rd place was taken by Ava Llaca/Eva Ríos/Helga Garcés.

Laser – The world ranking leader Gustavo Lima (POR) sailed an excellent regatta to take the bullet with Luis Martinez Doreste (ESP) in 2nd and Einar Persson (DEN) 3rd.

Finn – Czech sailors dominated in the Finn Class with Michael Maier 1st and Michael Hruby 2nd, with Rafael Trujillo (ESP) who had been in second position for most of the regatta taking 3rd overall.
470 Women – In 470 Women the national hopes were on Natalia Via-Dufresne/Sandra Azon who started the championship well, but ended up finishing 4th. World ranking leaders and the reigning World Champions Sofia Bekatourou/Emilia Tsoulfa (GRE) took the bullet.

Europe –
In the Europe class the Sophie de Turkheim (FRA) dominated by a considerable margin, pretty good for a sailor ranked 109 on the world rankings, who has never placed so high at any graded event, with the Dutch sailor Ditte Juul 2nd and close on her tails Maria Coleman (IRL) in 3rd.