LAGO DI LEDRO – After three days of competition, which saw the execution of 102 matches out of 109 planned in the programme for the knockout stages, the scenarios begin to outline of what will be the competitions of the coming days and which are the stronger crews on Lake Ledro for this 7th edition of the World University Match Racing Championship.
For the Open category, the Japanese team led by Kohel Ichikawa, who – with 8 points and one race still to go – can already be considered among those who will pass the turn. Still to be decided, is the fate of ITA1 (Valerio Galati) and USA (Nevin Snow), tied with 7 points each, and the favored crew AUS1 (Samuel Gilmour), with 6 points scored and one race still to go.
In the Female category, the teams that in the coming days will face the second round-robin for the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th places, are the Italian team led by Federica Wetzl (3 points), AUS1 of Tara McCall (2 points), AUS2 of Kathleen Stroinovsky (1 point) and Bra2 of Marina Jardim Cardia (1 point). The GBR crew of Annabel Vose, which scored 7 wins out of 7 will go directly to the semi-finals.
27 races of the first round robin held yesterday (22 for the Open category and 5 for Women), started late in the morning with the spectacular and exciting match between the female crews of Singapore and Britain: a few minutes after departure, a penalty was called against the British sailors, who recovered only in the vicinity of the finish-line, reached first by the latter.
Fairly good weather conditions – with winds from west between 6-7 knots, with falls of up to 5 – recorded in the early part of the day; a break from 15hr to 16hr, due to a lack of wind and then back into water to complete the final matches of the day.
‘The Championship is progressing nicely’, commented Bruce Hebbert, appointed chief umpire, ‘thanks to the great professionalism of the athletes, referees and members of the jury. This allows us to lose no time and proceed with the races. It ‘nice to be able to work in this spirit that was present since the first day. No unpleasant episodes have been recorded until today and this makes the progress of the championship very pleasant. The fact that everyone involved, at all levels, is helping to promote the success of this event, is a matter of pride and honor for the Sailing Association Lake Ledro and for Trentino. I must compliment everyone, really fantastic.’
(Source: Paola Malcotti, WUC Media)