Day 2 of the RS:X Youth World Championships proved as difficult and frustrating for the competitors waiting to get the event under here at Lake Garda, Italy. Another day of light winds, this time interrupted by extreme conditions and violent storms ripped through the northern end of the lake causing at times, total chaos both on shore and on the water.

Despite an early start scheduled, the morning breeze failed to materialise until 1230 with competitors frustratingly sat ashore looking at a patch of water that normally provides iconic sailing conditions – which everyone will hope to return to normal planning conditions later in the week.

A light and gentle 6-7 knot wind greeted the sailors afloat and one short sharp race was run with the race officer cautious in shortening course as dark clouds approached from the south. Luckily this move paid off as a storm swept across the course areas just as the competitors headed ashore with a 500% increase in wind speed of 45 knots hitting the race area – devastating conditions at any level but with all sailors safely ashore, an incredibly wise decision from the race team.

With one race on the scoreboard, the championship was underway and Israel’s Daniel Cohen and France’s Titoun Pillot won a race apiece to lead the championship overnight. Impressively Fabian Pianazza from France is the first U17 in fifth place overall. France and Israel laid down their intent dominating the boys fleet occupying eight of the top ten spots after a single race. China’s Zhaoguan Gong is in third place overall, a testament to the depth of the talent coming through from outside of Europe in the windsurfing world.

In the girl’s fleet, it is a battle of the world champions with reigning Youth Sailing World Championship from 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand, Emma Wilson (GBR) just losing out to Katy Spychakov (ISR) who is the reigning RS:X Youth World Champion from last year’s edition . This battle will surely carry on for this event and into the World Sailing Youth Championships in Sanya, China at the end of the year, if they perform and are selected from this event.

With many more selection battles being played out this week, not only will RS:X Youth World Champions be decided, many countries will be selecting sailors for future representation.

The Race Committee seemed to get older by the minute as the conditions challenged every ounce of their knowledge with variable and shifting conditions for the remainder of the afternoon, proving that fair racing would be impossible with the team finally admitting defeat just before 1800 (local time) this evening.

With only one race completed after two days, this puts significant pressure on the final series, something which is being trialled further at this event. The organisers hope to catch up over the coming days and allow sailors to prove their skills over the final few races and justify their places in the Grand Final. There are so many sailors and races to, hopefully, watch over the coming days so stay tuned and keep following to see who will compete for the titles as the racing continues! We are all hoping that the weather gods listen to the wind dance of Ewa and finally come to play nicely!

Text: Bas Edmonds / RS:X Class
Photos: Robert Hajduk / Shuttersail.com

Event website: http://www.rsxclass.org/youthworlds2017/

Pictures: http://www.rsxclass.org/media/pictures/?album=5753

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RSXOlympicWindsurfing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSXCLASS

Lake Garda, famous for its three brothers of winds; the Ora, Peler and Balin, left the 137 sailors at the RS:X Youth World Championships hugely frustrated today as all three “wind brothers” failed to show up.

With a grey damp start to the first scheduled day of racing, competitors were greeted with a flat calm lake, not the best start to the event and certainly it wouldn’t have settled the nerves of the sailors, for many of whom this event is the pinnacle of the windsurfing season.

The weather teased and toyed with the sailors and race officials, building to a tempting 8-9 knots which pushed the fleet out in anticipation. However, as promptly as it had built, it died away leaving coaches to tow in their sailors and the race committee scratching their heads.

To not recognise the efforts of the race committee on such a difficult day would be foolish. The efforts that go into such a teasing day of light winds is huge with the volunteers wanting to get sailors afloat and racing, but only if the racing would be fair.

Thankfully, one part of the weather did play ball for the afternoon as the sun made an appearance which made the waiting around much more bearable. One thing that was evident in the board park is that, whilst the fiercest of competitors on the water, there are many excellent friendships made ashore which is a strength of the class at all levels of competition.

For the race organisers, plan B has to come out with the racing moved to 0800 in the morning in hope of better wind then – a chance to get some racing onto the scoresheet and calm the nerves. The forecast still looks unpredictable for Wednesday and plan B certainly has its risks but there aren’t that many options left.

Ewa Jodlowska, the Class Race Officer for the event, explained: “We tried our hardest to race today but it wasn’t easy to predict the weather and get racing in. We have moved the racing to as early as possible tomorrow in the hope that we get some good winds for good fair racing.”

Text: Bas Edmonds / RS:X Class
Photos: Robert Hajduk / Shuttersail.com

Event website: http://www.rsxclass.org/youthworlds2017/

Pictures: http://www.rsxclass.org/media/pictures/?album=5753

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RSXOlympicWindsurfing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSXCLASS

World Sailing, the International Federation of the sport, received the news today that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed the proposed 10 sailing events for Tokyo 2020, but reduced the athlete quota for Sailing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by 30 athletes from 380 to 350. The decision was made today (9 June) in Lausanne by the IOC Executive Board following an IOC Programme Commission recommendation.

Click here to read the IOC’s press release in full.

On the IOC’s announcement, World Sailing President Kim Andersen said, “The IOC Executive Board decision to confirm our 10 medal events for Tokyo 2020, but reduce sailing’s quota by 30 sailors is disappointing. The reduction in sailors will impact our ability to drive the development of the sport in-line with the Olympic Agenda 2020 objectives and we will now need to review the quotas for 2020 and any impact on our event programme and we will discuss this matter further with the IOC over the coming days.

“Our quota proposal to the IOC would have delivered gender equity at a sport level in 2020, supported by proposed development programmes for women sailors in the RSX and Laser Radial, specifically aimed at increasing the number of nations with women’s programmes who would have had a realistic opportunity to qualify for an entry at the Olympic Games.

“World Sailing has a long history of innovation and sustainable evolution of sport, successfully delivering against the IOC requirements of universality, increasing gender equity and staging events that have growing appeal to young sailing and non-sailing fans.

“World Sailing has worked hard to influence and justify to the IOC the sports development and innovation plans and we are pleased that the Foiling Nacra 17 has been approved for inclusion at Tokyo 2020 by the IOC Executive Board, together with a number of event format innovations to make the sailing competition more easily understandable and exciting for both sailing and non-sailing fans.

“However, we understand the need for continuous evolution of the Olympic Programme and we will continue to work closely with the IOC on the future of our sport and to make the Tokyo 2020 Games a great success.

“World Sailing’s goals and priorities for the Olympic Sailing Competition remain. We will continue to ensure we grow participation at qualification events and the Olympic Games and subsequently support developing nations to narrow the performance gap, ensuring a wide spread of medals.

“We will also continue to work with the IOC on our proposed Kiteboarding and Offshore showcase events for sailing.”

World Sailing will now commence an internal review of quotas for the 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition and will consult with the IOC on the 2020 event programme. Changes to the quotas in each Olympic event require the World Sailing Events Committee to make a recommendation for approval to the World Sailing Council, which will then need to be further approved by the IOC Executive Board.

The timing of any changes will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

By Daniel Smith – World Sailing

Editors’ notes:

CONTACT Daniel Smith Communications and Digital Manager T: +44 (0)7771 542 131 E: [email protected]ABOUT WORLD SAILING World Sailing is the world governing body for the sport of sailing, officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Founded in 1907, World Sailing’s vision is for a world in which millions more people fall in love with sailing; inspired by the unique relationship between sport, technology and the forces of nature; we all work to protect the waters of the world.World Sailing is made up of 145 Member National Authorities, the national governing bodies for sailing around the world and 114 World Sailing Class Associations. For more information about World Sailing please go to sailing.org or contact [email protected]