The future is now!
3 days done, and everything is accelerating towards the moment of truth at this Techno293 World Championships here on beautiful Lake Garda, Italy. There’s more than 15 years of history of Techno World Champions, but the future is being decided right here, right now, by the 300 young windsurfers who’ve come from more than 20 countries to soak up the Techno experience from the best place possible.
Blue skies and strong wind were both freely available in the morning morning, which prompted the race committee to send out the U17 Boys, for 2 more rounds of decisive, moment of truth races, taking them to 6 races overall, and the point where the axe fell, cutting the ranking in two, with the top half (Gold Fleet) going on to race for the medals, while the lower half (Silver Fleet) continue racing for the fun and the honour. In the strong wind there was a big shake up of the possible podium positions that continued during the afternoon, with 1 more race, the first of the final series.
Yesterday in the afternoon the wind calmed down, perfect timing for the race committee to send the younger fleets out. The U15 fleets each enjoyed 2 more rounds which consolidated the leading places in the rankings for some, and opened a possible door to others.
In U15 Girls, Maria Rudowicz (Poland) strengthened her lead over Anna Polettini (Italy), and they look comfortable ahead of fast-climbing Azul Sanchez Vallejo (Spain), moving into 3rd place, with only 2 points separating 3rd, 4th and 5th. Meanwhile, the U15 Boys result is starting to look like a done deal, Itmar Levi (Israel) running away at the top after compatriot Omer Shemesh’s bad day. Shemesh holds on to second place ahead of the consistent Dmitrii Nesterenko (Russia).
The U13s only had time for 1 more race, which made little or no difference to the leading places, it’s a 1-2-3 for Italy with Mathias Bortolotti, Perluigi Caproni and Luca Pachiotti 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The best placed girl is another Italian, Medea Marisa Falcioni defending her 6th place but not able to make any impression on the top 3.
The U17 Girls ranking has been a 2-way battle all week, with Kristyna Chalupnikova (Czech Republic) and Polina Ovchinnikova (Russia) leading the way. They’ll be looking nervously over their shoulders at the fast-rising Nela Sadikova (Czech Republic) who has jumped into the 3rd podium spot after 7 completed rounds.
The biggest shake-up came in U17 Boys, with Britain’s Boris Shaw leap-frogging his way into the provisional lead after 6 races, only for Italy’s Federico Alan Pilloni to snatch the lead back in the day’s final race. They are still ahead of Spain’s consistent Billy Coll Tulloch, while Italy’s Alessandro Graciotti slipped back to 5th.
There’s still time for movement and change to most of the rankings and plenty to race for in the last 3 days. A lot will depend on the wind and weather conditions. As today is a strong wind day for all.