29er EuroCup Finals at Fraglia Vela Riva - Overall
by International 29er Class 27 Oct 2022 15:05 BST
23-26 October 2022
29er EuroCup Finals, day 4 © Elena Giolai
A perfect conclusion for the final of the 29er Eurocup 2022 and Fraglia Vela Riva's last regatta of the season.
With three races held on the last day in a northerly wind, the deserved victory of the home crew, vice-world class champions, Demurtas-Santi, put the icing on the cake in an event that began with uncertain weather and little wind. Recovering over the last two days where the sun and wind reappeared, hard-fought intensely close races punctuated the hours on the water.
The event, which closed with six qualifying races and seven final races was run brilliantly by the FIV Race Committee, always ready to make the most of the conditions. This was the final non-discardable stage of the "Eurocup" circuit for this popular high performance youth class, which is growing year by year.
At Riva del Garda, this event registered a record number of entrants with 150 boats, 300 sailors from 19 nations, who coloured the waters of Garda Trentino with their eye-catching spinnakers and fast, exciting racing. Congratulations to the organising club Fraglia Vela Riva, who's top crew were on the top step of the podium with a closely fought battle all week from the French and the Irish teams.
Alex Demurtas and Giovanni Santi certainly made the most of their local knowledge, but they were also able to control their opponents well, stretching their lead on the last day of racing to win both the event and the EuroCup series. With a 1-3-11 they pulled away from their opponents, finishing 13 points ahead of the second placed crew, Irish sibling team Clementine and Nathan Van Steenberge, who had an amazing second half of their regatta, finishing second overall in both the event and the overall series and first among the mixed crews.
A tough day for the Frenchmen Goron-Clochard and Revil-Devaux, who found the tricky conditions challenging. For them, the worst races of the entire event, which dropped them to third and fourth place in this final respectively. Goron-Clochard nevertheless confirmed first place in the under-17 category, ahead of the Italians (Circolo Vela Arco) Bellomi-Berti, fifth overall. Third under-17 crew were the Poles Sobzak-Krolik. Czech team, Lukáš Dadák - Dan Višcor picked up third overall in the EuroCup series by just four points.
Italy was also present on the women's podium: between the two Swedish crews placed first and third with Tea Zeeberg-Cornelia Widestam and Ebba and Ellen Fredriksson, Malika Bellomi and Beatrice Conti (Circolo Vela Arco) took second place.
With this the final event of the 2022 EuroCup Series, thoughts are now turning to the competitions for 2023 and planning winter training for the growing fleet.
The 29er Class want to thank all the organising clubs of the 2022 EuroCup series and the sailors, coaches and supporters who have made our season so successful. Thank you to Ovington Boats for providing the overall prizes and continuing to support the 29er Class. We will publish the confirmed dates for 2023 EuroCup racing very soon and we wish everyone a wonderful winter of training and racing in preparation for next year's closely fought racing. It is always amazing to see the true happiness of the sailors and we are proud of the spirit and commitment of the fleet to world class training, racing and enjoyment of our amazing sport.
Full results here