India Page-Wood wins Optimist Europeans at Bourgas, Bulgaria
by Kristine Page-Wood 7 Aug 2017 12:50 BST
30 July - 6 August 2017
India Page-Wood wins the Optimist Europeans in Bulgaria © Kristine Page-Wood
After 5 days and 30 hours on the water in scorching heat in Bourgas, Bulgaria, India Page-Wood (GBR 6459) of Hayling Island SC and Grafham Water SC takes the European Optimist title. The first British female to win this title and first British sailor since Nick Thompson won in 1999.
The final day at the 2017 Optimist European Championship delivered another perfect day on the race course. Racing was scheduled to start an hour earlier in an attempt by the Race Committee to get two races completed for all fleets before the 3:00pm deadline.
The very predictable thermal winds arrived on schedule, however only two races were completed for the Girls Gold fleet and Boys Gold and Silver Fleets.
Stefan Yuill (SRB) finished the day off with a 2nd and 18th (his drop race) to hold on to his 1st place overall position in the Gold Fleet. As he is also the top European competitor, he has been crowned the 2017 Optimist Boy European Champion.
Igor Kuczys (POL) stuck close to Yuill all day as he had finishes of 3rd and 16th in both races to finish 2nd overall and the 2nd European. He discarded an early 16th place however, this was not enough to overtake Yuill as he ended up 12 points behind.
Eight points behind Kuczys and third overall and 3rd European was Iakovoz-Dimitrious Dede-Sntentopoulos(GRE) who had 15th and 7th place finishes today for a total of 50 points.
Saturday's leader Can Erturk(TUR) had a tough day. He was disqualified from the 1st race after being protested, to drop him to 7th overall. Another early leader Santiago Palkin (ARG) finished up 9th overall.
In the Girls Gold Fleet, Donna Mazzuchhelli (ARG) dominated the first place podium spot all week long and ended up 26 points ahead of the second place sailor India-Page Wood (GBR) to give her the Overall Girl Champion at the event. As she is from Argentina, she could not be crowned the 2017 Optimist European Champion. That honour went to India-Page Wood from Great Britain. She sailed consistently on the final day to finish with a 5th and 6th place in the last two races to put her 24 points ahead of 3rd place overall and 2nd European Natascha Rast (SUI).
Natascha was tied in points with Johanna Schmidt (AUT) who finished 4th overall and but ended up on the podium as the 3rd place European.
The 2017 Optimist European Championship wrapped up Sunday in Bourgas where 261 sailors from 44 countries had five days of excellent racing. Competition was fierce in all of the fleets and every sailor is congratulated on their performance.
Full results can be found here.