Despite a poor wind forecast 38 riders including 4 women arrived at the event site in beautiful Klagshamn, Sweden for the event 2nd to 6th of June. [more] The weather was fantastic apart from the wind which was not playing ball. The spot is renowned for generating thermal winds and doubling the forecasted wind strength, but not this week – much to the frustration of the race crew, who were very eager to get a result as this was their first time holding an international event here. On day two they moved the riders and race crew to a different location 15 km north of Malmo which they hoped would generate some wind to get some heats in but after sending the fleet out the wind did not pick up.
With two days to go the riders and organisers were beginning to feel it would not happen. But at 6.00 in the evening on Sunday the wind picked up and a course quickly set. They tried for three rounds of 50 minute duration but the wind died at about 9.00 and only two heats were run and only the second qualified as a counting round. So it was up to the last day to see if Klagshamn could live up to its reputation!
Expectations were high as the wind picked up overnight and blew up to 30 knots by 10.30, a course was set and racing resumed but yes you guessed it the wind dropped! It did pick up again but only two rounds counted out of the four run, which showed the minimum speed rules worked well.
Final results for the three counting rounds were dominated by the Swedish men led by Marcus Richardson, with only Zara Davis from the UK in the women’s fleet stopping ex PWA sailor Maria Johansen from making it an all Swedish whitewash. Zara had to miss the 1st event in Belgium due to injury and was very pleased to get a win under her belt.
Unfortunately David Garrel the winner from the 1st round could not make it but the other nations gave their best. The fastest non Swede was British rider Martyn Ogier from Jersey who did very well to take 5th place in the gusty winds, but with local knowledge playing a big part there was no stopping the locals.
Prize giving was at six o’clock and thanks were given to the organisers for a great event under very difficult circumstances. Sweden did itself proud.
Results for Sweden
Men’s Fleet
1st Marcus Richardson SWE 31.589 Knots top speed
2nd Daniel Borgelind SWE 30.654 Knots top speed
3rd MarkusEmanuelsson SWE 31.717 Knots top speed
4th Anders Bjorkqvist SWE 31.317 Knots top speed
5th Martyn Ogier GBR 29.686 Knots top speed
Women’s Fleet
1st Zara Davis GBR 27.664 Knots top speed
2nd Maria Johansen SWE 25.822 Knots top speed
3rd Nicky Van Hoof BEL 26.312 Knots top speed
With two events completed, Germany’s No 1 speedsailor Thorsten Mallon takes the top spot on the Euro Tour rankings followed very closely by Belgian No 1 Patrick Van Hoof and David Garrel LUX in third. The Battle between Thorsten and Patrick was so close in Sweden that they were both on 20 points at the end of the competition. So less than half a knot of top speed gave Thorsten the win and puts him top of the leader board.
In the women’s fleet Nicky Van hoof still holds the top spot. But with Zara Davis back on form, she managed 3 bullets at the Swedish event putting her in second place overall. Nicky definately has a fight on her hands.
Only the rider’s top three events count towards the championship out of the five events on the tour. So it is all still to play for!
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