Sometimes when you’re involved with a sport that relies on mother nature, mother nature wins. And that’s exactly what happened during day three of the Techno293 World Championships as only one race, for one fleet, was able to go ahead.
The Youth Boys Yellow Fleet were the only ones able to hit the water for their 5th race and Greek Leonidas Tsortanidis emerged from the race as the winner, closely followed by overall leader Amit Gan from Israel and French boy Louis Pignolet.[more] Vardimon Tomer, for whom there were high hopes before the start of the competition, came in fourth place while the rest of the top 10 was rounded off by Hong Kong sailor Ma Kwan-Lam, Japanese athlete Akumi Ikeda, Greece national Alexandros Kalpogiannakis, Yeung Lok who is also from Hong Kong, Spaniard Guillem Segu-Giro and Israeli Yahel Habot.
A day waiting on the beach gave us a chance to catch up with the sailors.
After three days of competition, Russian Youth Girl Dana Kosyak sits in third place overall and has a unique way of expressing herself out on the water: she sings. And after a good couple of days of competing, Kosyak has revealed her chosen song will be Fighter by Monsta X.
There has been a lot of talk about the conditions out there, and Kosyak revealed what the ideal wind would be like for her as a light wind specialist: “I like a lot of wind, maybe 10 knots, because I am a bit light. I want 25 knots, but in light wind I think I can race better.”
Even the best laid plans can be foiled by nature and that’s what happened in the case of the Russian. “I wanted to go on the water but there was no wind, but tomorrow I will be signing the same song,” revealed Kosyak.
One of the sailors who has improved a lot is Alexander Lim from Singapore, who was racing in the silver fleet two or three years ago but now finds himself in seventh place. This shows some remarkable improvements for the youngster, who put it down to simple hard work.
“You have to gym every day, and work a lot,” Lim explained. With training conditions similar to that of Salou, Lim has targeted a top five finish. This is a goal that could easily be achieved as the athlete is currently breathing down the neck of his nearest rivals.
Lim is on 11 points, with Fabien Pianazza in sixth and Vardimon Tomer in fifth are only standing on 10 and nine points themselves. Another good day of racing could see the Singapore national leapfrog those two and achieve his goals.
Tomorrow will see continued qualifications for the U17 Boys Blue fleet, while the final series will be held for the Junior Boys. This is when things are going to get serious and Championships can be won or lost, so make sure you tune in to all of the action.
With plenty of things happening on the water, such as the singing Kosyak and the much-improved Lim, it’s bound to be an exciting day whatever the weather.
