RS Feva European Championships at Lake Lipno, Czech Republic - Day 1
by Samantha Foster 14 May 2016 17:02 BST
13-16 May 2016
RS Feva Europeans at Lake Lipno day 1 © Samantha Foster
Competitors were greeted by a cloudy and light morning in Cerna v Posumavi. The lake was calm and the forecast unpredictable, few knew what lay ahead on the first day of their European Championships. There was an air of excitement and nervousness in the boat park as the competitors left their briefing and teams focussed on last minute preparations for the day ahead.
Reigning champions, Jack Lewis and Lucas Marshall from GBR were one of the first to launch looking confident and ready for the day. They were closely followed by their biggest competition, Jakub Dobrý and Tereza Dobrá from CZE. Although Lewis and Marshall have been pretty dominant in the class over the last year, Dobrý and Dobrá have never been far behind, and so it is looking like it could be a closely fought battle over the next few days between these two teams.
Race one started after two general recalls, by this time the wind had decreased and had become very shifty. As expected, the top boats were really fighting it out with Lewis and Dobrý both up there, however the Czechs managed to hold onto the lead and took the first race with the Brits, Lewis and Marshall close behind. The wind continued to drop and shortly after the last boats crossed the finish line the AP flag went up and the boats were sent to shore.
The unpredictable wind and a severe storm threat meant that the race committee were unable to get a clear schedule for the rest of the day and so they made the decision to raise the AP over A flags, putting a rather premature end to day one's racing.
It has been a day for the Czechs, with nine of the top ten teams being CZE going into day two. Jack Lewis and Lucas Marshall still have the title in their sights, sitting in second and we should not rule out the Italian pairing of Giovanni Boletti and Lorenzo Ricco who are sitting in tenth.
Stay tuned to find out whether the Czechs will hold onto the lead tomorrow or whether the Brits will overtake and get back on track to holding onto the European title for a second year!
Full results can be found here.