sabato 30 luglio 2011

Finn Focus at the Silver Cup (Junior World Championship), Moscow


The fourth day of the Finn Silver Cup in Moscow finally produced some great racing. After suffering with light and non-existent wind so far, the 38 strong fleet got in three great races. Race wins went to Julian Massler (GER), Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS) and Artur Ponieczynski (POL), though Kistanov still leads the championship. Ponieczynski climbs to second while Robert Bakoczy (HUN) discards his DNF in the first race to jump up to third.

The race committee tried to use every chance, every opportunity to get a race in. After Thursday's thunderstorms the air flow was resumed and there was a steady 4-6 knot breeze throughout the day, which enabled three good races to be sailed – and allowed it to become a championship.

The wind pattern was quite tricky but basically the results were determined by the start. The sailors who managed to get good starts, kept their lead until the end, with only small changes in positions and no big surprises. The first race was won by Julian Massler after a good start, reading the shifts well and controlling his competitors. He won from championship leader Arkadiy Kistanov and Andrey Yanitsky (RUS)

In the next race, Kistanov came to the front, and managed to read and to forecast wind changes and shifts well after a good start, to win from Egor Terpigorev (RUS) and Viktor Filippov (RUS). The final race of the day went to Artur Ponieczynski (POL) from Robert Bakoczy (HUN) and Vladimir Soleniy (KGZ).

Arkady Kistanov has extended his lead, but with three races to come everything is down to the last day. He said, “I am happy how things have developed so far, because I thought I would be top five. not first. I think I have good speed in this weather, and this is my native sailing area.”

“This is my fourth season in the Finn and I have sailed the Finn since I was 13 years old. Before that I sailed the Laser 4.7 and Radial for two and a half years.” Who does he think will be his main threat on the final day, “There are too many threats. First of all myself.”

One of the pre-regatta favourite, Oliver Tweddell (AUS), who finished third last year, has not had the best week. He said, “This entire week has been extremely tricky, with fickle winds often making it hard to get proper races in. I must say that the race committee are doing a good job with such difficult conditions. As far as the event goes, I am enjoying the social side and have definitely improved my table tennis skills, but I am not having a very successful regatta.”

Saturday's forecast is for wind of about 8-10 knots. The Race Committee has decided to run three fleet races without a medal race, but with the last race as non-discardable. An early start at 10.00 is planned. Later, the award ceremony will be held in Moscow Sailing School "Khlebnikov" at 18.00.

Top 10 after 5 races (38 entries)

1 RUS 6 Arkadiy Kistanov 9

2 POL 11 Artur Ponieczynski 25

3 HUN 8 Robert Bakoczy 25

4 GER 127 Julian Massler 28

5 RUS 111 Andrey Yanitsky 29

6 POL 1 Milosz Wojewski 30

7 RUS 9 Viktor Filippov 32

8 RUS 91 Viacheslav Sivenkov 37

9 RUS 151 Vadim Tsvetkov 38

10 BUL 855 Dimitar Vangelov 41

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