The last day of the World’s in Christchurch was lucky again in terms of wind. There were several places which were fought for till the last race. Especially tough was the battle between Robert Baldyga and Vincent Langer for the silver in the Youth fleet. Finally the Polish took the lead after some really impressive races from both of the guys.
Another fight was to be observed among the youngest. There Michael Aftowicz (Poland) was defending his bronze medal and John Kaju (Estonia) attacked wildly. After the last race John managed to take the lead with 4 point in front of Michael.
Also the Grand Masters had a tough finish with the two top guys racing each other hard. After the last day Massimo Colombi (Italy) succeeded in fighting Birger Wedendahl (Denmark) and won this category.
I had a fight too on the 4th place in Youth. All in all I must admit I did some childish mistakes on the course and fell to the 5th making place for Damien le Guen form France to take the 4th. I can’t say that I’m fully satisfied as I hoped to take a medal but the level being really high this year is just another thing giving me even more determination to work hard in the future.
The event itself was rather succesfull. The Youth and Masters had done 14 races and Juniors and Girls did 11. The Youth making 3 laps every race did 42 laps overall. There were 87 competitors from Poland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Bulgaria, Belgium, Italy and Spain. The medals went to: Poland – 7, France – 2, Germany – 2, Estonia -2, Great Britain – 2, Italy -2, Norway -1. The only sailor to take 2 medals was Maciek Rutkowski (Poland) taking the bronze in U17 fleet and the gold in U15s.
I’m very happy to say that many new faces showed up during this regatta which means we have more and more people of any age coming into the sport. Let’s just hope that it will stay this way and soon there will be more people watching windsurfing than football.
Cheers to all of you. See you on the next event.
Leszek Rutkowski, Pol 220
(Starboard; Severne Sails; Deemeed)
www.pol220.com
