Sensini and Bouman Win World Championships!

The most incredible day of windsurfing of this millennium.
The First RS:X world championships has been a great success, Firstly the biggest fleet in 20 plus years, secondly not a general recall in any race, period. And last of all, the closest racing ever seen in windsurfing history.
The crowd was out in force here in Torbole. People travelled miles to experience the happening. Novice windsurfers staring out at the spectacle. Local families playing on the stony beach. Just a lot of people. The papers, television and radio stations all had news of the event plastered in every corner of the tabloids. So the spectators were very in tune with the program. Sailors even signing autographs. The Men’s Medal race was held at 13:50, with a building breeze peaking at around 18 knots. Full planing conditions. The course was moved inside to the inner bay. Police watercraft were scouting the perimeter to keep the scores of spectator craft out of the race area. The ten competitors all had their race faces on.Ready to sail a windward leeward 1 course.

Make or brake time was upon them.  The start gun sounded, and the fleet split into no definite side, all head down  full noise racing. Miarczinski Przemek(POL) better known as Pont was flying he reached first mark first.followed by Casper Bouman(NED) Tom Ashley(NZL) Joeri Van Dijk.(NED) and Nick Dempsey(GBR). Pont lead from start to finish. And the battle for 1 st was really on. All Casper had to do was keep in front of Tom. As the scores are doubled in the Medal round. There was not more than 10 board lengths in the top 6 places. The people on the spectator boats could be heard load and clear. Cheers for all the sailors competing. In the end Pont won the race, but it was Casper who was to win the battle. Tom came in a credible 3 rd , with Joeri in 4 th . Press Boats mobbed the Dutch coach boat of Casper. All the Dutch team members were all jumping around their boats. Dutch television sent film directly to Holland. By the time Casper had reached the shore, a telegram from the Dutch royal family had arrived to congratulate him on this amazing achievement. A very excited group all chanting “HUP Holland” The other competitor all sailed up and congratulated Casper, a great show of the amazing competitive spirit these guys have.
The women started about 15 minutes after the last finisher in the men’s medal race. A slight increase in wind strength, and even more spectators. All jockeying to get a glimpse of  Alessandra Sensini(ITA). The same course was used as before, windward leeward 1. It was not such an easy race as in the men’s. The fleet was really split. All but Faustine Merret were off the line clean. Crossing some ten seconds behind t6he group. The top mark rounding saw Barbara Kendall(NZL) and Alessandra Sensini locked together nearly colliding  words were exchanged but there was no infringements. Next to round was Marina Alabau(ESP), and then  a grouping of Charline Picon(FRA) and Romy Kinzl(GER).
The reaches were a speed track, and as the women sped down towards the water front of  Torbole, the police had to sound their sirens to keep the masses of spectator boats out of the course. Barbara dropped back letting Marina through, as they rounded the bottom mark. Alessandra continued to lead, as they back markers caught up causing a bunch up on the way back upwind. The lead changed again. Marina had a lucky shift and squeezed past Alessandra, She held the lead going into the slalom finish. Both closed in on the first jibe mark, Marina pumped and planed into turn two. Alessandra got stuck in the jibe and lost maybe 15 board lengths. It was all Marina. The crowd were going completely bonkers. The mass of coach, jury, race committee and press boats neared the finish line. As Marina lead to the finish.  Alessandra bit here bottom lip and in an interview afterwards, said “I just closed her eyes and pumped like crazy”. When she finally opened her eyes she had pumped over marina and with only metres to go, crossed in first place. Now Italians are loud at the best of times, well you should have heard the throng ocheers and then the chorus of the national anthem. Such an emotional moment. Alessandra was screaming at the top of her voice, Her coach and young nephew were right on the spot to give embraces and kisses Italian style. An Italian flag was produced, and Alessandra decided to do a lap of honour on one of the Police jet skis, screaming in Italian, :Three colours, three colours”. Once on the beach the press photographers mobbed her, and well that was the last we saw of her until the Prize giving.
 
 The sailors that didn’t qualify for the medal rounds had an opportunity to participate  a long distance which had was a rabbit start. Gebi being the rabbit. And all had a great time.
The prize giving was a fan fare of prizes. Beautiful glass trophies for the long distance. Accompanied by local wine. The top ten men and women all got trophies, a print from a famous local artist. And more wine. The top three men and women all received a very cool looking trophy which looked like a hand holding up a globe engraved and etched in real gold.
It must be said that the Circolo Surf Torbole have done a fantastic job during the championship, all the race committee and the jury, worked extremely hard. All the sailors have walked away with an amazing life experience. In the weeks ahead check in to see the video of the event, a heap more photos, and more profiles on the sailors. Thanks everybody for checking in.

Men’s Gold Fleet Bulges on the first day of the finals
Enthusiasm gave way to experience in the women’s fleet. Alessandra Sensini(ITA25) and Faustine Merret(FRA9) dominated in inconsistent planing non-planing races. Whilst the Men’s gold fleet bulged. An 82 strong fleet, all squeezing onto a mass port start to gain the advantage from the cliffs. With 164 male competitors some clarification of the split from gold to silver fleets had to be discussed.
As the Championship rules stipulate the top 50% competitors go through to the gold fleet. If there are any sailors on equal points, right on the cut off point. Both sailors will advance forward.

If there is an uneven number, the gold fleet will have one more than silver. So with this in mind this means that 82 men advance. The women also had a 50% split with 41 sailors going through to the gold fleet. Being on the inner course the women found the wind to less of an advantage. With breeze fluctuating it was centreboard conditions upwind, and planing down wind. Faustine Merret(FRA9) fell in at the start giving a very unwanted advantage to the rest of the fleet. She went into “fight back” mode and by the second outer loop had pulled back everybody excluding Alessandra Sensini(ITA25). Alessandra and Faustine then proceeded to pull out from the rest of the fleet finishing first and second respectively. Marina Alabau(ESP5) and Jannicke Staalstrom(NOR3) backed them up with 3 rd and 4 TH , followed closely by Jessica Crisp(AUS15)in fifth. The second race and Faustine continued in full race mode and had the race completely to her self. Zofia Klepacka(POL8) slipped to a 22 nd in race one, and was determined to not let that happen again. Cracking back with a second place, and in third place, Alessadra who moves into 1st place over all. 23 points separate the top 4 women from the rest of the pack.
 
The Gold Men’s fleet was a true spectacle. Lots of gold and reflective grey monoflim, bouncing light off the water and back again. Getting off the line with clear air and no obstacles was paramount. The sailors that achieved that, could only capitalise. Maxim Obermenko(UKR19) was one who did, he shot off the line closest to the pin, clean breeze and made a direct line for the cliffs. Tom Ashley(NZL181), Joeri Van Dijk(NED1), Miarczynski Przemek(POL172), and Casper Bouman(NED52) were all in this group. The lead changed constantly, but at the end it was Maxim who was in the commanding position. The wind was dying a little by the last mark, Miarczynski just squeezed into the second before Joeri.Very lucky indeed. The second race was all Miarczynski. Who had the legs to take it to the end. Locked in and hanging on to his uphaul, full speed mode and just flying. Second was Nicolas Le Gal(FRA115) followed by Ricardo Santos(BRA1).

The Dutchies had a tough second race. Jeori dropped down to a difficult 28 th , whilst Casper did a bit better to come in at 17 th . Tom Ashley really fought back hard pumping pushing any one who got in his way. A complete show of strength and character. To get a well earned tenth. So Tom is in equal first with Casper, Joeri is still in 3 rd .   To finish off, New Zealand delegate Ralph Roberts gave a presentation to a group of about 70 to pitch the 2008 RS:X Worlds in Takapuna New Zealand. After a video presentation, and a question and answer session with both Barbara Kendall and Paul Page. Everybody seemed quite fired up. A vote at the AGM will determine whether the Kiwi’s are successful or not. Korea was the only other submission.

Late day of qualification Those who dug deep progressed.

Overcast and the potential for rain, ushered a different weather pattern. The Storm that battered northern Britain earlier in the week has been smashing its way across Europe causing wide spread electrical blackouts in Marseille. We had a bit of a wait whilst the Peller(north) wind decided to co-operate it looked really light. The wind didn't switch as like other days. It fluctuated from planing in the early races to sub planing in the later races.. Those who dug deep progressed, others were not so lucky.The race courses looked very different with the overcast conditions and definite avenues of wind filtered down the course. Trentino course further off shore was the windier by at least 5 knots, than Torbole.

The competitors that continued to plane at all times, seemed to be so far ahead of their fleets I often had to check the colour of the streamers to determine the division. For example Alessandra Sensini (ITA25) had just passed the second mark in race one, and had a lead of around 30 seconds, she caught a couple of well calculated gusts, which helped her stretch her lead. By the time she was back at the top again she had advanced her lead by over two minutes, and was not looking back. I think she lapped all but about 12 other women. Faustine Merrit(FRA9) continued her string of top ten finishes with a 1, 1. Using her strength in the last race to pull ahead of early leader and team mate Pauline Perrin(FRA81).

The race committee has been really diligent on their start infringements. There has been no general recalls as yet, but quite a few independent. In a fleet as big as this any slip up like this can be close to sudden disqualification. On Torbole course, a bunch up in the women's start had a younger sailor accidently pushing Bryony Shaw(GBR94) over early. Causing her to score an OCS. Lee Korsits(ISR1111), Charline Picon(FRA4), and Antonia Frey(GRE1) also had OCS's Marina Alabau(ESP5) was seen to have touched the start boat with her hand, right on the start signal, and the race committee protested her, she was scored a DSQ, which she can still drop. She is the overall leader at this moment, only one point ahead of Zofia Klepcka(POL8), and can not afford to have any more slips.

More of the same in the men's races, Casper Bouman(NED52), Tom Ashley(NZL181) are still up in first place on 5 points, Casper has a drop of 1, where Tom has a drop of a 2. Absolutely impeccable racing from this pair has really thrown the championship bookies into a spin. Both are sailing to such a high level that they are on the beach changed and warming down before some people have even finished. Joeri Van Dijk(NED1)had a 6 th place today which dropped him one point down from the equal first spot. The next three positions are held by Nick Dempsey(GBR21), Przemek Miarcynzski(POL126), and Ricardo Santos(BRA1).with no   more than 5 points separating each of them. You can see by the scores and on the race track that these guys are digging deep to get every extra little puff of wind and when the puffs don't come the are pumping to get the maximum speed out of their board. Stop and you can loose ten places

So now we go onto the finals races. The championship rules state that the top 5o% will   go into the Gold fleet, and 50% into the Silver fleet. So 40 women and   82 men will progress. A well earned rest day tomorrow, then back to the action on Thursday.

Only the Top Ten Advance

Last day of the Finals, One race scheduled. The wind looked light. We waited until close to 14:00. And as before the men's and women's gold fleets were the first cab off the rank. 14:35 and the women were off and racing, the men having to wait a single postponement of around 10 minutes. The conditions on Trentino course looked light. 80% of the fleet had track forward. Those who hit the corners capitalised. Marina Alabau(ESP) sailed out from the pack early. She went hard left in the straps and came in first to the top mark. Sailors who chose the centre lanes missed out. Li Ling(CHN) rounded second followed by Pauline Perrin(FRA). Current overall place holder Alessandra Sensini(ITA) rounded in seventh place. Bryony Shaw(GBR) and Antonia Frey(GRE) were caught way back in the pack. Bryony was able to find gaps and fight back to a reasonable position, Antonia wasn't so lucky. Zofia Klepecka(POL) had a major drama. She some how got a small rock stuck in her mast track and was unable to push her mast track forward.

Affectively cancelling her race. Alessandra Sensini continued to push forward through the leading group. Followed by Barbara Kendall. Marina played it smart, covering and keeping the plan simple. The next 5 positions constantly switched and changed Alessandra made it up to second, only to be passed by Barbara Kendall and Charline Picon(FRA) on the last reach to the finish.   Romy Kinzl(GER) sailed into 5 th followed by Faustine Merret(FRA)in 6 th Place. Bryony scored a 14 th , which was good enough to give her the tenth place and a position in medal rounds. She looked pretty relieved after the race.

A postponement flag was hoisted for about ten minutes. The wind went a little bit funky, but soon settled down. The pin end was favoured "AGAIN". So 90% of the fleet slammed the right side, directly under the cliffs. Full speed planing in 15 knots, the start line definitely had open spaces yet some people still managed to be over at the start. The top guys not only blazed a trail clear of the fleet, Tom Ahley(NZL) and Miarczynski Przemek(POL) left everybody standing still. It was all all these two from start to finish. Tom crossed first closely followed by Miarczynski. Two French men found their legs Julien Quentel and Julien   Bontemp got up to speed finishing 3 rd and 4 th . Joeri Van Dijk and Nick Dempsey ended up in the low teens.   But still holding onto 4 th and 5 th overall. Casper had a 5 th place which keeps him in second(19points). Two points behind leader Tom Ashley(17points), and 3 points ahead of Miarczynski(22points). The top ten positions are now locked in. Both Toni Wilhelm(GER) and Nicolas Le Gal   have made it into the top ten for the first time. Also bear in mind the top 5 sailors are all in a position to be on the podium. So it's crunch time for all

All About Lay Lines

The format didn't change very much from yesterday. Except for the fact that gold women got off the line first(14:00) whilst the gold men waited around 20 minutes for the wind to steady. Race one was held slightly marginal planing conditions. The gold women on the outer loop, found that right side payed off more than the left which made the last section of the race lighter whilst the silver women sailed in 3 knots more, on the inner loop. The battle is on for the top spot.

Alessandra Sensini(ITA) has hardly stepped on a windsurfing board for the last two years, let alone trained on an RS:X. A gold medallist and double bronze medal holder, she hasn't had a score worse than 5 th so far this week. On the beach or in the rigging area she is down right relaxed, walking around talking often being stopped by the Italian media. She chats away in front of the cameras as if it was to a neigbor where she lives in Grosseto, Tuscany. Man what a difference on the race course. Cool, calculated, and really fast in all conditions. Alessandra had two thirds today pulling ahead of   Marina Alabau(ESP) by 5 points Third place Faustine Merret had a 5 th and a 12 th which dropped her 8 points behind Marina, but still in third. Marina cracked a 1st, 2nd today after an 11 th, yesterday. And one point behind Faustine is Zofia Klepecka(POL) in 4 th .

Just to throw a stat at you guys there are three women in the top ten who have been to 3 or more Olympics games. Have won multiple world championships as well as all coming from the professional windsurfing circuit to sail in the Olympic chosen classes.   They are Jessica Crisp, Alessandra Sensini and Barbara Kendall.

The Men found more of a race track on Torbole course. As Barry Edgington(GBR coach) "It's all about clean starts lay lines. Get off the line with speed hit the cliffs and don't overlay or underlay the first mark. The speed of the RS:X is fast and if you have to tack more than the sailor next to you, you can loose maybe ten to fifteen board lengths".

The guys getting into this groove have been flying off the start line and have been damn hard to catch. Casper Bouman(NED) got back into his groove today with a 1 st and a 2 nd . Tom Ashley(NZL) dropped from top spot and trails by 2 points he scored a 4 th and a 1 st . Tom Had a shocking first beat rounding in around 28 th place. But the experience level and confidence that Tom has, enables him to reach down deep and pull the next gear out. Miarczynski Przemek(POL) came in with a 2 nd and a 3 rd . sailing with a clear head and a steel Polish face. Special mention should go top Nick Dempsey(GBR) currently in 5 th overall, has not been on the podium as yet this regatta. His worst score to date has been a 7 th , and still has a chance to grab a medal.

We have one more race tomorrow. Then we move onto the Medal rounds, where the top ten men and women progress. Double points score makes the last race critical. The rest of the silver and gold fleets will do a mass start Long distance race. This will also count towards the overall scores. So don't for get to check in tomorrow as we are no where near finished yet. Oh and by the way, today was my first day ever filming from a helicopter. So check in to the gallery page on www.rsxclass.com and look at some sick windsurfing shots here in Torbole, Lake Garda  

Men’s Gold Fleet Bulges on the first day of the finals
Enthusiasm gave way to experience in the women’s fleet. Alessandra Sensini(ITA25) and Faustine Merret(FRA9) dominated in inconsistent planing non-planing races. Whilst the Men’s gold fleet bulged. An 82 strong fleet, all squeezing onto a mass port start to gain the advantage from the cliffs. With 164 male competitors some clarification of the split from gold to silver fleets had to be discussed.
As the Championship rules stipulate the top 50% competitors go through to the gold fleet. If there are any sailors on equal points, right on the cut off point. Both sailors will advance forward.

If there is an uneven number, the gold fleet will have one more than silver. So with this in mind this means that 82 men advance. The women also had a 50% split with 41 sailors going through to the gold fleet. Being on the inner course the women found the wind to less of an advantage. With breeze fluctuating it was centreboard conditions upwind, and planing down wind. Faustine Merret(FRA9) fell in at the start giving a very unwanted advantage to the rest of the fleet. She went into “fight back” mode and by the second outer loop had pulled back everybody excluding Alessandra Sensini(ITA25). Alessandra and Faustine then proceeded to pull out from the rest of the fleet finishing first and second respectively. Marina Alabau(ESP5) and Jannicke Staalstrom(NOR3) backed them up with 3 rd and 4 TH , followed closely by Jessica Crisp(AUS15)in fifth. The second race and Faustine continued in full race mode and had the race completely to her self. Zofia Klepacka(POL8) slipped to a 22 nd in race one, and was determined to not let that happen again. Cracking back with a second place, and in third place, Alessadra who moves into 1st place over all. 23 points separate the top 4 women from the rest of the pack.
 
The Gold Men’s fleet was a true spectacle. Lots of gold and reflective grey monoflim, bouncing light off the water and back again. Getting off the line with clear air and no obstacles was paramount. The sailors that achieved that, could only capitalise. Maxim Obermenko(UKR19) was one who did, he shot off the line closest to the pin, clean breeze and made a direct line for the cliffs. Tom Ashley(NZL181), Joeri Van Dijk(NED1), Miarczynski Przemek(POL172), and Casper Bouman(NED52) were all in this group. The lead changed constantly, but at the end it was Maxim who was in the commanding position. The wind was dying a little by the last mark, Miarczynski just squeezed into the second before Joeri.Very lucky indeed. The second race was all Miarczynski. Who had the legs to take it to the end. Locked in and hanging on to his uphaul, full speed mode and just flying. Second was Nicolas Le Gal(FRA115) followed by Ricardo Santos(BRA1).

The Dutchies had a tough second race. Jeori dropped down to a difficult 28 th , whilst Casper did a bit better to come in at 17 th . Tom Ashley really fought back hard pumping pushing any one who got in his way. A complete show of strength and character. To get a well earned tenth. So Tom is in equal first with Casper, Joeri is still in 3 rd .   To finish off, New Zealand delegate Ralph Roberts gave a presentation to a group of about 70 to pitch the 2008 RS:X Worlds in Takapuna New Zealand. After a video presentation, and a question and answer session with both Barbara Kendall and Paul Page. Everybody seemed quite fired up. A vote at the AGM will determine whether the Kiwi’s are successful or not. Korea was the only other submission.

Late day of qualification Those who dug deep progressed.

Overcast and the potential for rain, ushered a different weather pattern. The Storm that battered northern Britain earlier in the week has been smashing its way across Europe causing wide spread electrical blackouts in Marseille. We had a bit of a wait whilst the Peller(north) wind decided to co-operate it looked really light. The wind didn't switch as like other days. It fluctuated from planing in the early races to sub planing in the later races.. Those who dug deep progressed, others were not so lucky.The race courses looked very different with the overcast conditions and definite avenues of wind filtered down the course. Trentino course further off shore was the windier by at least 5 knots, than Torbole.

The competitors that continued to plane at all times, seemed to be so far ahead of their fleets I often had to check the colour of the streamers to determine the division. For example Alessandra Sensini (ITA25) had just passed the second mark in race one, and had a lead of around 30 seconds, she caught a couple of well calculated gusts, which helped her stretch her lead. By the time she was back at the top again she had advanced her lead by over two minutes, and was not looking back. I think she lapped all but about 12 other women. Faustine Merrit(FRA9) continued her string of top ten finishes with a 1, 1. Using her strength in the last race to pull ahead of early leader and team mate Pauline Perrin(FRA81).

The race committee has been really diligent on their start infringements. There has been no general recalls as yet, but quite a few independent. In a fleet as big as this any slip up like this can be close to sudden disqualification. On Torbole course, a bunch up in the women's start had a younger sailor accidently pushing Bryony Shaw(GBR94) over early. Causing her to score an OCS. Lee Korsits(ISR1111), Charline Picon(FRA4), and Antonia Frey(GRE1) also had OCS's Marina Alabau(ESP5) was seen to have touched the start boat with her hand, right on the start signal, and the race committee protested her, she was scored a DSQ, which she can still drop. She is the overall leader at this moment, only one point ahead of Zofia Klepcka(POL8), and can not afford to have any more slips.

More of the same in the men's races, Casper Bouman(NED52), Tom Ashley(NZL181) are still up in first place on 5 points, Casper has a drop of 1, where Tom has a drop of a 2. Absolutely impeccable racing from this pair has really thrown the championship bookies into a spin. Both are sailing to such a high level that they are on the beach changed and warming down before some people have even finished. Joeri Van Dijk(NED1)had a 6 th place today which dropped him one point down from the equal first spot. The next three positions are held by Nick Dempsey(GBR21), Przemek Miarcynzski(POL126), and Ricardo Santos(BRA1).with no   more than 5 points separating each of them. You can see by the scores and on the race track that these guys are digging deep to get every extra little puff of wind and when the puffs don't come the are pumping to get the maximum speed out of their board. Stop and you can loose ten places

So now we go onto the finals races. The championship rules state that the top 5o% will   go into the Gold fleet, and 50% into the Silver fleet. So 40 women and   82 men will progress. A well earned rest day tomorrow, then back to the action on Thursday.