RS Tera European Championships at Lake Garda - Overall
by Zoë Handley 10 Aug 2009 08:32 BST
6-11 August 2009
RS Tera European Championships - day 1 © RS Tera Class
The RS Tera European Championships concluded on a sunny Lake Garda with Italians and Swedes lifting the trophies. Matteo Dall'agnola (ITA) became the first RS Tera Pro European Champion and Kevin Olsson (SWE) the first RS Tera Sport European Champion.
The Pro sail fleet of 25 boats enjoyed a ten-race series which was dominated by Italian boys. Matteo Dall'agnola scored three firsts and always finished in the top ten but it was still a close finish with the overall result determined by discard from Macopo Fanti (ITA), second, who also sailed consistently at the top.
Arianna Stradolini (ITA) won the RS Tera Pro European Ladies Championship and Pro fleet Merit Awards were given to Christian Schmidt (DEN) and Matthew French (GBR), the current UK Tera National Champion. Matthew won the UK championship sailing with a Tera Sport sail but switched to the more powerful Pro sail for the Europeans, so it was his first experience of fleet racing with the Pro sail.
In the RS Tera Sport sail fleet it was the Swedish sailors at the front with a mix of boys and girls. Again it was close competition with Kevin Olsson (SWE) winning from Julia Dellnas (SWE) by just 2 points and Kanicha Ekdahl (SWE) one point behind in third place.
Two UK sailors performed well in the Sport Class, Josh Aldridge (GBR) of Burnham SC and James Kelly (GBR) of Isle of Man Yacht Club finishing fifth and sixth respectively, just ahead of Annika Bock (GER).
The under 12 division of the Sport fleet also saw a good UK result with Greg Kelly (GBR) from the Isle of Man in third place behind Leonardo Stocchero (ITA) and Alessandra Dubbini (ITA).
Our thanks go to the hosts YC Acquafresca for running a great event and the fifty sailors and their families for taking part. The next RS Tera international event will be the second RS Tera World Championship at Carnac Yacht Club, France in July 2010.
The next UK event will be the Nationals at Dabchicks SC 19th/20th September with racing for both Sport and Pro sails for the first time in the UK. The event information and on-line entry is at sailing.eventhq.co.uk