Tornado Europeans at Lake Lipno, Czech Republic - Overall
by Maria Tsaousidou 16 Jun 2015 10:11 BST
11-15 June 2015
The Gaeblers are the 2015 European Open and Mixed Champions
28 teams from 9 different countries battled for the 2015 European title in Y.C. Jestrabi at Cerna v Posumavi, Czech Republic.
The weather varied from day to day, from hot and sunny to cold and cloudy, but the sailing conditions remained difficult and demanding either way. There were a lot of shifts both in direction and in speed of the wind so great tactics were required to win each race. Finally 8 amazing races and a lot of social events were completed. The race and organization committee made an excellent job so everyone was more than satisfied and happy to have come to this wonderful place.
On the first day, the Redbull team (Dany Paschalidis – Kostas Trigonis) made an excellent start scoring 2 bullets in 2 races while teams J.J. Darboven (Roland and Nahid Gaebler) and Hellenic Police (Nikolaos Mavros – Alexandros Tagaropoulos) were in second and third place respectively having equal points.
The second day was ideal for Roland and Nahid who managed to score two bullets and a second. The overall results didn't change though as Redbull team remained on top, J.J. Darboven in second and Hellenic Police in third place, just two points behind first.
Only one race was finished on the third racing day and it was again Roland and Nahid Gaebler who won the race, managing to take the lead in the overall results with Dany and Kostas following them in second place. The good performance of Nikolaos and Alexandros was not enough to help them climb up on the results.
So we went on into the last racing day with the two top boats having equal points and the third being close behind.
After 2 exciting races Roland and Nahid Gaebler became the 2015 Tornado Open as well as the Mixed European champions after scoring a bullet and a third place.
Second and third place for the open European championship went to Greece. Dany Paschalidis and Kostas Trigonis, despite their great start, did not manage to maintain their lead finishing in the second place, with Nikolaos Mavros and Alexandros Tagaropoulos following them in third.
In the Mixed crews, Roland and Nahid Gaebler were unbeatable. They were in first position from the beginning of the event so they were the 2015 European Mixed champions as well, but there was a lot of battling going on for the rest of the places.
Dietmar and Silvia Salzmann (AUT), Piekavski Zbigniew - Gorska Ewa (POL), Zdenek Pavlis - Michaela Pavlisova (CZE), Juergen and Sarah Jentsch (GER) and Maurer Dieter - Oldenburg Katrin (GER) were all tight in points during the whole event. At last, it was the team Zdenek Pavlis - Michaela Pavlisova from Czech who managed to gain second place leaving the Austrian team of Dietmar and Silvia Salzmann in third.
The winner, Roland Gaebler said, "It was one of the best European championships that we ever had and we enjoyed the fair sailing, especially against our closest opponents, the Greeks. It was one of the most tactical races of all the years because of the wind shifts. It was a real chess game at its best. It was difficult to sail here but we finally made it.
Full results can be found here.
www.2015-tornado-europeans.eu