29er Eurocup Finals, light wind doesn’t stop racing in Riva del Garda

Riva del Garda – The most classic of gloomy days did not stop the first races valid for the 29er Eurocup Finals, final stage of the circuit reserved for specialists in this acrobatic dinghy organized by Fraglia Vela Riva and participated by one hundred and thirty crews, gathered on the Benaco representing fifteen Nations.

The Ora (southerly wind), weak but stable in direction, entered with a certain delay compared to expectations and lost momentum almost immediately, leaving on the regatta fields – the high number of participants recommended the division of the participants into four fleets and the use of two twin courses – a breeze of variable intensity between 5 and 8 knots. Conditions that did not frighten the presidents of the Race Committees, Giancarlo Crevatin and Valentina Bravi, who, well assisted by the staff of Fraglia Vela Riva, managed to complete three racess for the red fleet and two for the blue, white and green ones.

Drawn up on the basis of the two races completed for all, the rankings show that the Dutch Lenny Hofman and Jules Vidor (today 2-1) started off strong and took advantage of the two races to dominate the white fleet and take the lead of the rankings on a par with the Hungarians Soma Kis-Szölgyémi and András Sámuel Juhász (1-2), considered among the favourites on the eve of the race by virtue of the second place occupied in the seasonal ranking list behind the Poles Ewa Lewandowska and Krzysztof Krolik, absent in Riva del Garda and destined, as the final leg progresses, to be overtaken by HUN-12.

The provisional third place is occupied by the top performers of the red group, the French Jouan Barnabe and Thelio Giannatoni (2-3), while in fourth place are the leaders of the green fleet, the Polish Antonina Puchowska and Mateusz Gasiorowski (5-1), who has emerged as the pair with the best female helmsman.

At present the best Italian crew is the one composed of Giuseppe Montesano and Enrico Coslovich (1-5) who occupy the sixth place behind the German brothers Lucas and Moritz Hamm (5-1), third force in the seasonal ranking and, so far, best Under 17 team.

The 29er Eurocup Finals will resume tomorrow at 9.00 with the holding of other qualifying races: the rankings, counted on the two races completed by all the fleets, will be used to redefine the four groups.