Finn Junior World Championship at Real Club Nautico Valencia - Day 3
by Robert Deaves 3 Jul 2015 07:35 BST
28 June - 5 July 2015
Teply back on top but Russians win the day
Ondrej Teply (CZE) is back on top at the Finn Junior World Championships for the Silver Cup in Valencia after two more races in moderate winds. Nenad Bugarin (CRO) is second with Stig Steinfurth (DEN) in third after all three were able to drop a letter score when the discard came into effect. Race wins went to Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS) and Anatoly Korshikov (RUS).
While most of Europe basked in the heat wave, and many sailing races were cancelled with no wind, racing was possible again in Valencia. The day began with another postponement, but filled in up to 12-15 knots for some great sailing conditions, though still pretty shifty at times.
Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS) went out today determined to better his scoreline so far. The 2011 Junior World Champion and current European Junior Champion has had a lacklustre start to the week, finding himself on the wrong side of the course too many times. He managed to get it all right in race 5 though with a race win from Fabian Pic (FRA) and Philip Kasueske (GER). However it went wrong in race 6 as he did some turns off the start line and could only recover to 11th and now stands 21 points off the lead.
The second race of the day went to Kistanov's Fantastica teammate Anatoly Korshikov (RUS) who revelled in the stronger breeze. Pic ended the day strongly with another second while Nenad Bugarin (CRO) kept his title hopes alive with a third place.
Kistanov said, "It was nice day, with good wind. For me the first race was just about getting a good start and leading from the first mark to the finish. The downwinds were really cool with nice swells."
"Just before the second start I did a 720 and was really deep at the first mark. I managed to have some comeback before the finish. Anatoly was probably third at the top mark, but moved up to first after a good second upwind on the right side."
Kasueske said, "After yesterday was almost as bad as day 1, today I sailed very well. A third and a fourth brings me back in the top 10, but we still have five races to go."
"Today was a tough day, like all the other days before, with lots of windshifts and pressure changes. My key was to stay mostly on the left side and just go with the shifts. But I also had a really good downwind speed in free pumping conditions."
"My target is top five at the Silver Cup. It's important for me to get a good result in the juniors and maybe also to redo the results from the Junior Europeans where we had the same guys as here and I was fifth. So hopefully I can do the same or better here."
Pic had the best day out of anyone with two second places to lift him to fourth overall. He said, "The conditions were good for me, a little bit more than the others days. I was quite fast again with an average start in each race. I did my best to be always top five at the upwind mark to be sure not to have a bad result. I think my tactics were not so bad downwind. In the first race I was fighting against Ondra. Arkadiy was a bit more in front. In the second I did a great come back at the last downwind from sixth to second."
With so many letter scores already, day 3 was the day everyone was waiting for to see how the cards were really falling. Even now there are seven boats in the top 10 with an OCS or a DSQ. From here on in every point will count and one more mistake from any of the seven will cost them dearly.
The championship is also just passed its half way stage. Two races are planned on each of Friday and Saturday before the final race on Sunday, and the way things have gone so far it will be the deciding race.
Results after Day 3: (top ten, 6 races, 1 discard)
1 CZE 5, Ondrej Teply, 13pts
2 CRO 52, Nenad Bugarin, 19pts
3 DEN 31, Stig Steinfurth, 24pts
4 FRA 17, Pic Fabian, 27pts
5 RUS 6, Arkadiy Kistanov, 34pts
6 ARG 48, Facundo Olezza, 34pts
7 GER 25, Max Kohlhoff, 35pts
8 GER 259, Kasueske Phillip, 39pts
9 NOR 9, Lars Johan Brodtkorb, 40pts
10 DEN 24, Andre Hojen Christiansen, 40pts
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