June 10, 2015
3 minutes reading time
Three Minutes Changes Everything at EUROSAF Match Race
Just when everyone thought the storms had gone from St.Petersburg they were back, and they brought some drama with them.
Just when everyone thought the storms had gone from St.Petersburg they were back, and they brought some drama with them.
The wind was blowing fiercely with gusts up to 35 knots – under such weather conditions it was next to impossible to hold the match races – but the organizers were committed to continue and managed it with all boats, sails and crews returning safe and sound – though the fight was a serious one.
Everything went smoothly in the fight for the 3rd place: two victories – and the bronze medal was already waiting ashore for the crew of Przemek Tarnacki. The young crew of Valerio Galati took 4th.
The Finals were really an exciting and highly competitive event. The crew of Pierre Quiroga got victories in the first two flights, but then their fortunes begun to turn and in the third flight on pre-start the French sailors didn’t keep clear of a windward boat and got a penalty awarded against them. Despite the outstanding penalty, then pressed on and won the race.
The forth flight was the last. According to the time schedule the finishing flight had to begin before 16:30 – no matter how it was going to be finished. The Rules state that in the case of crews having a similar number of wins, the overall winner would be announced from the results of the quarter-finals.
As a matter of fact, everything was to be decided in one match race: 2:1 was the score where the French team was the winner, but at the previous stage the result of Lipavsky’s crew was better (4 victories in 4 flights).
The crew of Pierre Quiroga got a penalty and couldn’t come back from it. It seemed like the crew of Lipavsky were waiting for that penalty and after the second mark took their chance. With the scoring 2:2 in the Finals Vladimir Lipavsky, Nikolay Kornev, Egor Larionov were announced the winners of the European Championship.
Principal Race Officer Anna Deyanova said, “Quiroga was fantastic. In the semi-finals Tarnacki was evidently the leader, but he relaxed a bit and his luck sailed away a bit. In the first flight Pierre Quiroga vs Tarnacki, the French skipper seemed to be lost at the start- the leader was losing.”
“But later, from flight to flight Quiroga was doing better and better gaining advantage. Maybe he himself relaxed a little bit after two victories in the finals. I can’t remember such an intriguing finals. Scoring 2:0, the French crew is the leader, time limit for the last flight start is approaching closer and closer.”
“A very quick third flight of the finals, scoring 2:1. Time is running away, 17 minutes left till the deadline of the last start. White flag, damage onboard the French crew, repairs done fantastically quickly by Kirill Lebedev. And we managed to begin the starting procedure three minutes before the time for the start is to be closed. Three minutes that changed everything.”
Start/Finish Race Official Vladimir Komel said, “We were all watching closely Przemek Tarnacki, the leader during round-robins, he won all the matches and everybody expected that he was the person to fight for the gold medal and all of a sudden there appeared mistakes an experienced sailor shouldn’t make.”
“We were disappointed, very likely he got burned out. Maybe because he didn’t take part in the match races yesterday and thus relaxed. Of course he was fighting for the 3rd place and was good at it and got the bronze medal.”
“In general we are pleased that the Cup is left with us and we sincerely congratulate the winners and are very proud that the Russian crew has won this Championship.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS:
1 Russia Vladimir LIPAVSKY RUSVL1
2 France Pierre QUIROGA FRAPQ1
3 Poland Przemek TARNACKI POLPT1
4 Italy Valerio GALATI ITAVG14
5 Germany Stefan MEISTER GERSM2
6 Germany Adrian MAIER-RING GERAM24
7 Sweden Patrik STURESSON SWEPS22
8 Finland Jon ERIKSSON FINJE1
9 Russia Ekaterina ANANINA RUSEA3
10 Sweden Henrik EYERMANN SWEHE1