2025 Open Finn European Championship at Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia - Overall
by Robert Deaves 13 Apr 2025 02:47 BST
5-12 April 2025
Valerian Lebrun, from France, has won the 2025 Open Finn European Championship in Naples, Italy, after two final races on Saturday, in a drama packed day that nearly cost him his first major Finn title. Italy's Federico Colaninno pushed him all the way and took second just 5 points behind, while also winning the U29 championship. Third place finally went to Estonia's Deniss Karpak, in his first regatta back in the class after four years away. Lebrun also retains the European Masters title.
Again, there was a short postponement ashore to wait for the thermal wind, but the breeze never fully developed with lots of cloud over the bay. Both races started under black flag, and though two downwind legs were sailed under Oscar for free pumping the wind never fully established and became quite light and shifty in the second race of the day.
Race 9 followed the form of the past week with most of the favourites near the front. Italy's Alessandro Maraga finally found the front, rounding ahead of Spain's David Terol and France's Laurent Hay. Marega extended away for a comfortable win. Behind him Colaninno did a good job to catch up when Oscar was raised at the second top mark, with Hay in second. Lebrun crossed in fourth to sit 14 points behind Colaninno going into the last race.
However, it was not so simple a race with the left coming in and some new faces at the front. Britain's Roman Khodykin lead round from Italy's Fulvio de Simone and Norway's Peder Nergaard. Lebrun rounded mid-20s and the title was in doubt for a while. Khodykin still held the lead at the gate, but Colaninno had moved to the front on the second upwind, closely followed by Britain's Nick Craig, who put in another solid performance today. Craig briefly passed in front, but the Italian led round the top and down to the finish, to win from Craig and Australia's Paul McKenzie.
Then all eyes were on Lebrun. He had rounded the gate about 13th and then lost a few upwind. He needed a top 14 to win the title and just managed to recover to 10th at the finish to win the title. He had led the event from Day 1 all the way to the finish.
After nine years in the class this is Lebrun's first major title. "My best friend used to be our coach and a few years ago and he told me if it's too easy you will not be happy, so I am very happy because it was not easy. Today I had to fight against the Italian, who sailed incredibly well in both races and he pushed me all the way. The last race was very tricky because the wind died and the right side which used to be the best side in the previous races didn't work this time, so I rounded very far, and I managed to catch up boats. I. needed to finish top 14 but I did not know whether I had done that at the end, so I can tell my best friend, I am happy because it was not easy at all."
"The championship was exactly what we expect from the Finn class. We sailed ten races in very nice weather, in a single fleet with 110 sailors including very good young sailors who have come back into the class, and I was very happy about that because it was very competitive. It was an incredible event, and the venue is perfect for sailing we had different wind conditions. In the first days it was really shifty, so everyone had a chance, sometimes a bit lighter. We had no heavy wind, but I think it was tough for most of us and I think we are all very tired."
This was probably the toughest Finn championship since 2021 with a very deep field of talent, both young and old, and certainly sets the scene for the coming years. The class is in a very healthy place right now. Next year's Open European Championship will be held in Gdynia, Poland at the end of July.
Overall Results: (top ten, 10 races)
1 FRA 111Valerian Lebrun 32pts
2 ITA 71 Federico Colaninno 37pts
3 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 50pts
4 ITA 1103 Alessandro Marega 58pts
5 ITA 51 Arkadii Kistanov 59pts
6 GBR 790 Nick Craig 95pts
7 POR 21 Filipe Silva 108pts
8 FRA 75 Laurent Hay 109pts
9 GBR 74 Lawrence Crispin 111pts
10 AUS 22 Paul McKenzie 111pts
U29
1 ITA 71 Federico Collaninno
2 POL 2 Michal Gonciarz
3 GER 323 Jonas Jung
Masters
1 FRA 111 Valerian Lebrun
2 POR 21 Filipe Silva
3 SUI 7 Christoph Burger
Grand Masters
1 GBR 790 Nick Craig
2 AUS 22 Paul McKenzie
3 GER 511 Fabian Lemmel
Great Grand Masters
1 FRA 75 Laurent Hay
2 GBR 74 Lawrence Crispin
3 AUS 2 Rob McMillan
Legend
1 ITA 79 Guiseppe Lino
2 ITA 7 Antinio Pitini
3 FRA 511 Claude Got
Full results available here.
Full gallery available here.