Showdown Time At Yngling Europeans

The Yngling Europeans are set for a spectacular finale with Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB and Pippa WILSON leading but five other crews in contention for victory in Saturday’s Medal Race.

Going into the Medal Race on Saturday, just seven points cover the first six boats. They will all sail for the Gold and the Championship tomorrow. The opening series concluded with two races on Friday, with all ten races sailed as scheduled in various conditions from very light winds on Thursday and the nice 12-16 knots breeze that met the sailors in the two races yesterday.

Renee GROENEVELD, Annemieke BES and Merel WITTEVEEN (NED) showed consistency and with a 6,5 today they closed in on Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB and Pippa WILSON (GBR) team and are now on equal points in first place. Two points behind the leading duo is the team of Anna BASALKINA, Vladislava UKRAINCEVA and Ekaterina MAXIMOVA (RUS) closely followed by the teams of Sally BARKOW, Carrie HOWE and Debbie CAPOZZI (USA), Mandy MULDER, Brechtje VAN DER WERF and Floortje HENDRIKSEN (NED) and Ekaterina SKUDINA, Diana KRUTSKIKH and Natalia IVANOVA (RUS). One of these six teams will be the European Champion tomorrow.

The fleet is very close together and there are very small margins between first and last boat. In the first race of today Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and Ute HOEPFNER (GER) were fighting for the win when penalized close to the finish line. After completing their penalty turn they lost 20 boats. After ten races no team in the 23-boat fleet have all single digit results, in fact only three boats have managed eight single-digit scores.

Besides the Medal Race scheduled for tomorrow a final race will be sailed by the teams placed 11th to last. The final race will have the same format as a Medal Race with short course, double points, on the water umpiring and no discard. This concept have been brought forward to give all teams the opportunity to sail in the Medal Race format under championship conditions.

Results – click here
Yngling European Championship – http://cvblanes.esportcatala.com