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15 Aug 2009

German Girls Bounce Back From Greek Tragedy With European Victory

Image: Gold Medallists Victoria Jurczok and Josephine Bach (GER) © Andy Rice

2009 470 Junior European Championships - Men/Mixed and Women
8-16 August 2009, Lake Balaton, Hungary

This is a particularly sweet victory for the German girls, who ruined their chance of a silver medal in the 470 Junior World Championships in Greece just a few weeks ago. “It is nice to win here after what happened in Greece,” said JURCZOK. “We were leading the Medal Race and we were too excited. We went the wrong way around the leeward mark and we went from first to last.” Hopes of a silver, or even a bronze, evaporated as the girls slipped to 4th overall.

No such mistake here, and JURCZOKwas pleased with how she and BACHhad sailed in such challenging conditions on Lake Balaton. “I think the key was to make a plan, make a decision, and then stick to your decision,” she said. “That’s what we did and it seemed to work for us.” The fight for the Men’s title has yet to be decided, and while the French team of Sofian BOUVET and Jeremie MION have a useful lead of 13 points over second-placed Germans Ferdinand GERZ and Tobias BOLDUAN, the unpredictability of Lake Balaton means nothing can be taken for granted.

Sebastián PERI BRUSA, helmsman of the Argentinean boat in 5th overall, has now lost even a mathematical chance of catching the French for the overall European title. The former ISAF Youth World Champion has had to readjust his target on beating one of the three teams ahead of him in the battle for silver and bronze tomorrow. “It is disappointing to have lost a chance of competing for the overall Championship,” he said, “but we are paying for the mistakes we made earlier in the week. Now we have to put a good race together and see if we can get to silver.”


Image: A quiet boat park © Andrea Mag

The 10 teams due to contest the Medal Race went to a special briefing this evening with the umpires who will provide on-the-water, instant judging during the race. The other 21 boats in Gold fleet, along with the Silver and Bronze fleets will conclude their Championships tomorrow with conventional fleet races.

Just a point separates the top two teams in Silver fleet, so the Italian leaders Paolo CATTANEO and Vittorio ZAOLI will be carefully watching their Hungarian rivals Botond SZIGETHI and Kristof JOO.

In Bronze, a whole host of men’s teams are waiting to pounce on the current fleet leaders, the Hungarian women’s team of Réka VIGH and Kinga SZABÓ. Tension will be running high on the concluding day of competition in Hungary, not just in the Medal Race but in every 470 fleet.

More information:
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Results

Report credit: Sailing Intelligence