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O'pen BIC - EurO'penCup 2015 - DAY ONE

338 views · Published 26 August 2015 · 2:05 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: TAHE Sport · 2015 · Sports

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127 of the best O'pen BIC sailors at the 2015 Euro'pen Cup!

"The 2015 O'pen BIC European Championships was a great success, with 9  rounds of challenging racing in extremely varied conditions, with northerly and southerly thermals blowing in at vastly different strengths all three days of the competition. The constant factor was the excellent O'pen BIC fairplay spirit that was present throughout the championships : some great racing on the water, some very early starts and long days, always focussing on the fun and enjoyment of the sport, also on the beach between all the competitors, coaches and parents present. Thank you to everyone for the excellent atmosphere and your enthusiasm all through the competition".  That was the verdict of Luca Nardelli, president of the Circolo Vela Arco club, as she opened the prize-giving ceremony for the 2015 O'pen BIC European Championships, hosted by the club on Lake Garda from 23rd to 26th July.

The competition, which attracted 127 of the best European O'pen BIC sailors from 10 countries, got off to a very slow start, a very volatile and unreliable first day wind making it impossible to validate any race.  

The day 2 forecast was for a decent northerly early in the morning, so the race committee scheduled the start of the first race for 7.30am !! Of course the wind didn't arrive, so we waited for the afternoon thermal to blow in before any racing could happen. Four rounds of racing took place in winds that eventually got up to 15 knots. And after such a long day on the beach and water (8 hours on the water !), we began to see some kind of provsional rankings appear. 3 Frenchies followed by 2 Germans in the U13 class, whereas in the U16 class it was a clean sweep for Italy, occupying the top 4 places ! And home advantage told again in the U19, Veronika Sivna winning all four first-day races.

A long day, and a long night of relaxation afterwards at the big banquet that helped everyone forget the fatigue of such an exhausting day !

Which left everything still to play for on the final day, with a more-or-less "normal" forecast for the lovely Lake Garda : light northerly in the morning, enough to run 2 rounds, then an express lunch break before the afternoon southerly blew in, filling in to 20 knots. The U13s and U16s, with 4 and 5 repectively, even had enough completed rounds to be able to have a discard (you discard your lowest score).

In the U13s (40 entrants), it was the German brothers, Magnus and Lennart Frohmann, who took charge in the stronger wind conditions. They took the first two places, the overnight-leading Frenchies finishing 3rd and 4th. Followed by the Italian Leopoldo Sirolli and Spaniard Pol Font Revero.

In the U16s, the biggest class with 80 competitors, the overnight rankings went out of the window and we ended up with the same podium as at the 2014 Italian Championships. The four best Italians, Frederico Zampiccoli, Filipp Vincis, Leonardo Chiste and Ludivico Chiste swept the board, ahead of  Natalia Kuczisz from Poland, who had the distinction of beating the locals in the 8th round !

In the U19s, Veronika Živná claimed the title without too much difficulty, winning 8 of the 9 rounds ! Second and third were the Portuguese Pires de Lima, and the Australian Taylor Kaielle.

We extend our sincerest thanks and congratulations to the host club, Circolo Vela Arco, for it's superb organisation of the event, for the perfect fair-play, all that and having it's young racers highly placed in three classes : Women's U13 with Alessia Benolli, and U19 with Veronika, plus the gold and bronze medals won by Federico Zampiccoli and Leonardo Chistè, who usually race as a team in 29ers.  A justifiably great result all-round for what is a very active sailing club.

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