Light wind in the beginning, followed by storms and thunder on the next day and stable 7-10 m/s wind on the last day of the Lithuanian leg of Neilpryde Baltic Cup, which took place in Svencele, a windsurfing paradise in the Curronian Lagoon. “Such conditions made this race very interesting and challenging. After all, we can truly say, that the winners really are the best,” said one of the judges, Mindaugas Cirvinskas.[more]
This year a three day long race attracted almost 90 participants, including world leading windsurfers and kite-surfers, from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Russia. They competed in four different classes: Formula Windsurfing, Raceboard, Techno 293 and IKA-Formula Kite.
One of the best Formula windsurfers in the world, Latvian Janis Preiss was happy to come back to Svencele: “You are very lucky to have this place,” he said. “It’s very beautiful and if the forecast says it’s going to be windy, it will be.” No one could catch up with him, thus he traditionally took the first place, leaving behind Estonian John Kaju and Latvian Maris Birzulis.
The best Lithuanian kite-surfer Viktoras Seputa won the IKA-Formula Kite race. “It was a tough competition,” he said. “We had everything in one place: from very light weather conditions to extremes, which led the organizers to stop the race for a while because of safety reasons. In such circumstances you can never relax.” In this class, the second and the third places were taken by Estonians Romm Ranno and Madis Kallas.
For the first time in the history, Lithuanians took part in the Techno 293 class. “It was an investment of athletes parents, who had bought the equipment so their children could take part in this competition,” the coach Darius Daraska said. At the end, the debut was really successful: two out of three Lithuanian athletes, Mindaugas Luksys and Rokas Didrikas, have climbed onto the pedestal, taking the second and the third places. The first was Latvian Namejs Dreimaris.
Lithuanians and Latvians were successful in Raceboard class as well. Lithuanian Vytautas Celiesius took the first place, leaving behind Latvians Gunars Racenbergs in the second place and Aldis Surins the third. “The conditions were favourable for lightweights on the first day, but everything has changed the next morning. Thus, the results were changing very quickly,” judge Mindaugas Cirvinskas said.
Windsurfing club Extreme-sports.lt organizes this event. It is the most important windsurfing competition in Lithuania. Points gathered during this competition will be included in the world ranking for the IKA-Formula Kite and Formula Windsurfing Classes.
Results:
Formula Windsurfing:
http://www.extreme-sports.lt/media/2015_rezultatai/BC/FW/bc2015os.html
Formula Kite:
http://www.extreme-sports.lt/media/2015_rezultatai/BC/Kite/bc2015os.html
Raceboard:
http://www.extreme-sports.lt/media/2015_rezultatai/BC/Raceboard/bc2015os.html
Bic Techno 293:
http://www.extreme-sports.lt/media/2015_rezultatai/BC/Techno/bc2015os.html
Photos:
First day:
https://www.facebook.com/ebareika/media_set?set=a.10204343039236543.1073741873.1246507263&type=3
Second day:
https://www.facebook.com/ebareika/media_set?set=a.10204365693482885.1073741874.1246507263&type=3
Last day:
https://www.facebook.com/ebareika/media_set?set=a.10204369209090773.1073741875.1246507263&type=3
Videos:
First day video report:
https://vimeo.com/129286009
Final event video report:
https://vimeo.com/129716909
