Team Italy breaks French dominance to take 2023 eSailing Nations Cup crown

Both teams traded wins early on with Italy taking the 2v2 Mixed Star, and France the 3v3 Offshore Racer by a single point. Italy then went on a run of three successive round wins, first in the 4v4 J70, then the F50 and Nacra 17. Sensing their title slipping away, France regrouped and won the next three – 4v4 ILCA, 3v3 J70 and 2v2 F50, all by narrow margins.

That left the title to be decided by the final race, a 5v5 49er battle.

Charizard edged out teammate VSP Moro di Napoli by just 0.7 of a second to take the victory and seal an Italian one-two. TRAP Barbie22 (FRA) finished in third, just 4.2 seconds back. Sosi (ITA), ATL pepitõ (FRA) and Babane06 in fourth, fifth and sixth separated by two seconds. Tommytamble (ITA) finished in seventh, Velista86 (ITA), TRAP®BrestPower (FRA) and COOL – xav-nice (FRA) in 10th.

Overall, this gave Italy a final round win of 22 to 33, giving them the points needed to win the final race and win the title.

“The victory is the result of the great work started three years ago by the Italian Sailing Federation and Sombrero Sport. The creation of the eFIV division was fundamental, with the annual work of training, coaching and regattas during the federal season we arrived with a team prepared in every respect, we had at least 15 players who could be interchanged without ever changing the general level of the team.  

“We are very happy with this victory, and we thank our President Francesco Ettorre who always supports us and the federal councillor with the eSailing delegation Ivan Branciamore who follows us with great constancy,” said Nico Sombrero, Italian Team Captain and FIV eSailing Development Manager. 

Tristan Peron (asere), French Team Captain, 2023 eSailing World Champion, added, “Everyone in the team is undoubtedly disappointed, but we bow to a very cohesive, more impactful, and better-trained Italian team, thanks to the FIV eSailing program. We gave it our all, and I am convinced we will come back stronger!”

Italy had beaten Japan to reach the final and France knocked out Poland. This left the two defeated semi-finalists to contest the Bronze Final, which was just as dramatic and followed a similar pattern to the Grand Final.

Poland won the first race, the 2v2 Mixed Star, before Japan hit back in the 3v3 Offshore Racer. Poland then won the next three (4v4 J70, F50 and Nacra 17) and Japan responded (4v4 ILCA, 3v3 J70 and 2v2 F50) to set up a decider in the ninth race, the 49er.

FUNe_Yuko, ozuyL and JPN985 took the top three positions to make it difficult for Poland to respond once more. AntilaAquila (POL) and Mieszko Mórawski (POL) held fourth and fifth, just ahead of Vegas (JPN), but it wasn’t to be. KORBA (POL) finished seventh, just 0.1 seconds back, and gave Japan too big of a lead. Andrzej1802 (POL), MKZ Dal Frombork (POL) and FC RICH (JPN) rounded out the top 10.

Relive the action in both the Grand Final and the Bronze Final on the World Sailing YouTube channel and eSailing World Championship Facebook page.