Mathias Krauss is the winner of the 42nd edition of the Garda Lake Opti Meeting
Riva del Garda – The 42nd edition of the Garda Optimist Meeting, which attracted almost 1200 athletes representing 38 nations to the Fraglia Vela Riva, ended with a very wet day, where however the rain did not stop the action. Two races were completed for the finals, at the end of which the winners of the 2024 edition of this regatta, which has become iconic for Optimist fleets around the world, were crowned.
The challenge in the Junior division was fought right to the end, where the name of the winner emerged only after all the results had been entered into the general ranking: the Frenchman prevailed after three days of qualifying and two hard-fought regattas in the final Mathias Krauss. Third on the eve of the finals, Krauss today recovered important points and with scores of 4-2 managed to conquer the top step of the podium in the most popular and attended Optimist event at an international level. The silver medal went to Manuel Bragança, a Brazilian who maintained control of the ranking until yesterday: suffering stronger wind conditions today compared to the previous days, Bragança achieved 27th and 13th place as the results of the finals , losing the margin of advantage over his pursuers and the leadership. In third place was the Englishman Hugo Fletcher, protagonist of today, in which he scored two victories. Other well-known names complete the top-ten, having already emerged from the qualifying phases: the Turkish Mehmet Erkut Buda is fourth, the home athlete Jesper Karlsen is fifth, the first of the Italians. In sixth place Stefanos Ssmaras (Greece), seventh and first female Adele Ramm-Ericson (Sweden), eighth Arthur Back (Brazil), ninth Isabella Calzadilla (Puerto Rico), tenth Pablo Muñoz Montes (USA).
Excitement for the very young Pietro Lombardi, standard bearer of the Fraglia Vela Malcesine, in the division reserved for Cadets. On the finishing line, in a mixture of shyness and enthusiasm, he declared: “Hi mum, dad, maybe I won the regatta!”. And it was exactly like this: after having firmly maintained control of the rankings in the first two days and having slipped to third place yesterday, Pietro demonstrated all his character and with a second and seventh place he won the 42nd Garda Optimist Meeting among the Cadets. The silver medal went to Greece’s Dimitrios Kapetanos, just two lengths behind Lombardi, while Turkey’s Mert Durkal took the third step of the podium. Antoniette Papin, leader of the Cadet women’s ranking since the first day, maintains her leadership and wins the gold reserved for the girls. She is followed on the women’s podium by Alix Nguyen-Minh from Hong Kong and Deniz Acele from Turkey.
Several special prizes were also awarded during the awards ceremony. Like every year, for the 42nd edition of the Garda Optimist Meeting, the 42nd ranked Juniors and Cadets, Erik Futtrup Havemann (Denmark) and Alexander Fischer Glent (Norway), were awarded. The Foletti Award went to the best-ranked born in 2013 in the Junior fleet, Giorgios Papavasileiou, while the Iate Club Rio de Janeiro won the ITAS Trophy, awarded to the club with the four athletes best placed in the general Junior ranking.
The complete rankings of the 42nd Garda Optimist Meeting are available at this link.
