2024 29er World Championships at Sailing Aarhus Day 1
by International 29er Class 4 Aug 2024 22:12 BST
1-9 August 2024
Finally, the 516 young sailors at the largest ever World Championships went head to head with three completed races on the first day of competition on Aarhus Bay.
Today's first start was planned for 11.00am, however it was pushed back a few hours as the morning's weather forecast threatened thunderstorms and extremely unstable winds. At 1:00 p.m Race Management was able to declare the race conditions satisfactory and the 258 participating boats launched eager to hit the startline.
With the wind coming from the west, the three courses were laid a good distance from the coast to catch the relatively light wind, which however increased positively throughout the day. All three race courses succeeded in completing the three scheduled races of the day which are underway simultaneously during the qualification days.
Favourites in the front
After today's three races the Polish boat POL 3237 with the mixed crew of Ewa Lewandowska and Krysztof Krolik is at the front in both the field of mixed crews and overall, which is not a big surprise as they have won everything they have entered in the recent months.
The Poles were hotly pursued and actually shared first position after two races with the Italian men's crew ITA 3 of Alex Demurtas and Giovanni Santi, who won men's silver at the 2023 World Championships. But when they had to retire during the third race, they end the day sitting in overall 2nd place, while they still lead the field of male crews just ahead of Australians Lucas Patrick and Luke Rogers.
Hong Kong, China lead in the Women's category
Emily Polson and Tiffany Mak sailed a fantastic first day to lead the Women's fleet by an extensive margin. Sitting in 6th position overall, their closest rivals are Alicja Tutkowska and Alicja Dampc from Poland in 22nd. Third Women's team is Josefine Nøjgaard and Esther Houborg from DEN in 31st.
Mixed Category
Kaja Sledzinska and Leon Sapijaszko from Poland sit in second in the mixed category and fourth overall. Third mixed team is Giulia Bartolozzi and Pietro Rizzi from Italy in 13th overall.
Anything can still happen
With two more days of qualification competition before the final series begins, sailors are fighting to get into Gold fleet and in reaching distance of the podium. With the conditions so challenging and shifty, anything can still happen and the many sailors can look forward to good conditions in the coming days with both sun and wind, which seem to be coming from slightly changing directions, so Aarhus Bugten is likely to to live up to his reputation as "tricky".
Find out more at 29erworlds.org