4 more races and four different winners – it leaves it all to play for on the final day, with a strong wind forecast for most of the day.[more]
Races today were won by: R8 Casper Bouman (NED-52), R9 Michal Polonowski (POL-16), R10 Steve Allen (AUS-0), and R11 Janis Preiss (LAT-23). Sailor of the day was Casper with 10 points from his 4 races, followed by Steve with 12 points and Arnon Dagan with 13 pts. It is little wonder that these 3 are top of the overall event ranking.
As ever, consistency pays in the race for major championship titles. But special mention to the lightweight young gun Sebastian Kornum (DEN-24) who has been pushing the leaders in most races; and to Betti Vainkula (EST-212), the lone female (and a youth) entry, for starting and finishing every race.
Four races completed on 3rd day of Formula Europeans
Great conditions for competitors on the third day of racing at the Formula Windsurfing European Championships in Liepaja, Latvia. [more]
Four races were completed – giving 3 different winners: current world champion Casper Bouman (NED-52) with two wins closed the gap on the overall leader Steve Allen (AUS-0) with one win today. Arnon Dagan (ISR-1) moved up to third overall with his race win, but he will be bitterly disappointed with his day since an error in race 2 led to him retiring after finishing in first place.
With many more races to come it is still anyone’s championship with both Michal Polanowski (POL-16) and young gun Sebastian Kornum (DEN-24) sailing consistently well and pushing for a podium place.
Full results after 7 races
Day 3 photo link / videos
Today was a day for slalom – 2 eliminations completed
Racing continued at the 2013 Formula European Championships and IFCA Slalom Grand Prix – but it was to be a change of racing discipline. [more]
Despite an attempt to start ‘formula’ racing at 1100 the wind was just too light, and straight onshore, to enable the big boards and sails to get off the beach. Over night the onshore breeze made sure there were plenty of waves to greet the sailors as they arrived at the beach, it was always going to be a difficult day for formula. After several squalls the wind eventually swung a little more sideshore and after a long postponement it was decided to try again. But, as the race committee returned to station, the wind picked up significantly averaging 18 knots with gusts of 25. It was decided to switch to slalom and release the formula sailors for the day. Of course everyone stayed to watch the action and enjoy some excellent slalom racing.
Heat board and course diagram had already been prepared early in the morning – two heats of 12, with a 10 man final (the top 5 from each), with the others to the losers final.
It was another good day for Steve Allen (AUS-0) with two wins followed by Arnon Dagan (ISR-1) with two second places, and these two dominated proceedings. Meanwhile, 3rd place overall was keenly contested between Janis Preiss (LAT-23), Maciek Rutkowski (POL-23) and Michal Polanowski (POL-16) – Janis finishing one point ahead of his rivals.
