Three races sailed on the first day
Today it was a successful beginning of the U21 Laser Radial Woman and Laser Standard Championships the second week’s events of the Groupama-OTP Balaton Laser Worlds. 91 girls from 31 countries and 138 boys representing 35 nations took part on the races divided into four (2 girls, 2 boys) groups for the Qualification Series.
A quite steady northeastern was blowing when the Laser fleets sailed to the course. Later the wind has weakened and shifted to east then to southeast. It was a hard task for the race committee to make reliable and fair courses. Led by Miklos Rauschenberger on behalf of the local organizers the race committee made a good job, so finally three races could be finished for each group even after some abandonments.
After three races Svenja Weger from Germany is leading with two second and a first place.
Georgina Povall follows her with a win and two safe fifth place. According to her statement in the daily video of the event she is fully aware of the fact that every sailor has to count on the possibility of a short qualification series as the weather forcasts are not promising concerning the winds on the coming few days. In such conditions the value of a balanced performance is extremly high.
Niki Blässer from Finland lies in third place as she has finished in the top ten all three races.
The best domestic sailor Flóra Virág is on the seveth place with two eights and a sixth. She finished 8th on the last week's U18 Laser 4.7 Championships.
Also the balanced performance helped to the leader positon Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini (GBR) in the Laser Standard fleet as he finished to times on the fourth place while he was the runner up in the second race.
After three races his closest rivals are Maxime Mazard from France (10., 1., 3.) and Tadeusz Kubiak from Poland (7., 5., 5.)
138 competitors from 35 nations are racing in the U21 Laser Standard fleet while 91 girls are representing 31 countries on the second Week's races of the Groupama-OTO Balaton Laser Worlds 2013.