Railey wins but Mihelic takes the championship

European Laser Radial Championship concludes in Denmark

The outcome of the Women’s European Laser Radial Championship in Denmark hung in the balance until the very end. It has been a shifty and unpredictable regatta every day on the ever-changing waters of The Sound between Denmark and Sweden, but most sailors believed today was the hardest of all.

In the end, Paige Railey held on to her lead to win the Open European Championship. Being American, she did not qualify for the European title, which went to Tina Mihelic of Croatia.

In the first race of the gold fleet finals, Poland’s Ewa Makowska and the early leaders found themselves dumped to the bottom of the pile. Meanwhile, some of the contenders for the European Championship who had been languishing in the back few of the 48-boat gold fleet now found themselves fighting for the front. Among the lucky ones to find new breeze with a massive right-hand wind shift were the reigning World Champion Sarah Steyaert of France, and Marit Bouwemeester of the Netherlands. Bouwemeester led for a while but Steyaert pulled through to win that heat. Railey was 20th, and so at this stage the regatta was wide open.

The first beat of the final race saw the pack on the left doing well early on, and then it swung to the pack on the right before the wind almost completely died just 200 metres before the mark. America’s Sarah Lihan found her own personal gust out of the middle of the course to lead around the mark just ahead of Railey who led the rejuvenated right-hand pack down the reaches.

By the leeward gate, Railey had pulled out to an almighty lead. Despite the wind shifts she played a good defensive game to score a resounding victory, not only in that race but in the overall points score.

Railey was delighted with the win. It’s been a challenging regatta, not least for the American who has also managed to take one of her university exams over the internet during the course of this week. “Today was really hard, the hardest day so far. In the first race, the girls in the back were almost last, the fleet was doing big flip flops,” she said. “After that first race, the door was wide open. It was anyone’s game in the second race. It was definitely 50:50, we had all split to a side, and it was which ever side was going to make it out first.”

The European title was a great reward for Tina Mihelic of Croatia, who won three races this week. She would have run Railey close for the overall title had she not forgotten to sign off after racing on the first day, for which she incurred a 10-point penalty to add on to her score. As it was, Mihelic only beat Steyaert by 2.5 points, and only 10 points separated 2nd place to 9th place overall. So much depended on the outcome of that final race.

Most consistent performer on the final day was Alberte Lindberg with a 10,2 score. This elevated the Dane to 4th overall, just 1 point behind Steyaert. Lindberg is not local to Copenhagen, so she was no more clued up about the local conditions than the international competitors. She won a race the previous day and said she felt more comfortable racing in the gold fleet than in qualifying. “I love to do the final rounds, I hate the qualifying but love the finals.”

Maiken Schütt was the next most successful Danish sailor in 12th overall. She had scored a 3rd place earlier in the week after her coach gave her an old glove that originally was the property of triple Olympic Champion Ben Ainslie. After scoring a 32nd in today’s first race she decided it was time to bring out the Ainslie magic again, so she stuffed the old glove down the front of her buoyancy aid. She was 5th around the first mark, then up to 4th, but dropped away to 8th at the finish. Even so, Schütt felt the hand of Ainslie had worked again, and said she would be taking the glove with her to Japan, the venue of the Laser Radial World Championships in just over a week’s time.

In the 70-boat Men’s division, Poland’s Zemke Wojciech had led all week, winning race after race. But today his regatta fell apart with scores of 20,26. This left the way clear for Greek sailor Michail Aristeidis to win the Men’s European Championship.

The Laser Radial Europeans is one of a number of high profile sailing regattas taking place in Denmark this summer as part of wider festival of different sports, called Denmark’s Year of Sport. To do their utmost to ensure that their events are held to the highest possible standards the Danish Sailing Association is working with the support of the insurance company CODAN (part of Sun Alliance Group), to provide TracTrac tracking during the Laser Radial Europeans, Finn Gold Cup, EUROSAF Match Racing Europeans and 470 World Championship. The Danish Sailing Association has purchased 150 state-of-the-art GPS tracking devices, allowing races to be followed in real time over the internet.

Last year the TracTrac tracking of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark was followed by nearly 30,000 viewers from 69 countries all over the world.

Gold fleet results:

Pos	Name	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	F1	F2	F3	F4	Tot	Net
1	Railey Paige	USA	6	4	3	3	2	-10	-45	3	20	1	97	42
2	Mihelic Tina	CRO	-17	17.0 DPI	1	10.5	1	9	1	9	7	-18	90.5	55.5
3	Steyaert Sarah	FRA	2	1	1	6	-21	9	(49.0 OCS)	24	1	14	128	58
4	Lindberg Alberte	DEN	9	11	7	-20	-18	8	11	1	10	2	97	59
5	Multala Sari	FIN	1	4	16	2	4	-24	17	13	3	-22	106	60
6	Bouwmeester Marit	NED	5	3	16	1	-25	5	6	-38	2	24	125	62
7	Gjerpen Cathrine	NOR	1	-17	10	11	3	10	3	-17	14	10	96	62
8	Van Acker Evi	BEL	11	1	17	3	4	-27	-28	2	8	17	118	63
9	Olsson Josefin	SWE	11	17	2	15	5	-43	5	5	5	-23	131	65
10	Dobson Charlotte	GBR	3	2	6	4	-11	4	30	-34	18	3	115	70
11	Drozdovskaya Tatiana	BLR	9	5	-32	4	3	5	4	26	19	(49.0 DNF)	156	75
12	Schütt Maiken	DEN	12	6	12	6	-19	3	10	22	-32	8	130	79
13	Deberny Katarzyna	POL	3	5	21	12	-27	2	21	16	4	(49.0 BFD)	160	84
14	King Gabrielle	AUS	5	15	5	-25	2	18	22	12	-24	6	134	85
15	Winther Sara	NZL	7	24	2	5	16	(49.0 BFD)	2	7	27	(49.0 BFD)	188	90
16	Fenclova Veronika	CZE	12	19	6	-22	8	6	15	20	-35	7	150	93
17	Goltz Franziska	GER	10	14	-31	5	5	7	-34	15	13	26	160	95
18	Reyes Lucia	ESP	2	14	4	2	16	-23	19	8	-47	34	169	99
19	Reyes Fatima	ESP	4	-21	20	9.5	1	3	24	33	6	-37	158.5	100.5
20	Cebrian Alicia	ESP	4	2	26	7	(49.0 BFD)	7	8	19	-46	29	197	102
21	de Turckheim Sophie	FRA	(49.0 BFD)	16	14	1	(49.0 BFD)	2	27	6	43	4	211	113
22	Makowska Ewa	POL	8	-31	3	14	7	1	37	-41	17	27	186	114
23	Kravarioti Virginia	GRE	10	18	25	9	(49.0 BFD)	19	-44	11	16	15	216	123
24	Edelman Nufar	ISR	15	6	4	14	22	-37	14	-30	29	25	196	129
25	Fasselt Lisa	GER	8	12	-36	15	22	15	29	-36	9	19	201	129
26	Young Alison	GBR	17	20	19	12	18	-29	7	18	21	-38	199	132
27	Tenkanen Tuula	FIN	-26	13	8	7	24	6	20	39	-45	16	204	133
28	Lihan Sarah	USA	(49.0 BFD)	13	30	13	12	28	-35	4	25	9	218	134
29	Haeger Anne	USA	21	22	9	-31	6	13	41	-46	12	13	214	137
30	Brewster Andrea	GBR	6	9	-15	8	8	13	31	32	-37	32	191	139
31	Dennis Claire	USA	-29	-28	20	16	9	16	23	23	22	11	197	140
32	Blom Claire	NED	7	8	-35	13	26	32	9	27	28	(49.0 BFD)	234	150
33	Clapcich Francesca	ITA	-21	7	15	9.5	11	1	42	25	40	(49.0 BFD)	220.5	150.5
34	Hall Cathrine	DEN	25	12	-32	18	6	8	12	35	39	(49.0 DNF)	236	155
35	Snellgrove Hannah	GBR	22	8	5	16	-32	14	-46	21	41	33	238	160
36	Gunni Sarah	DEN	-28	19	13	10.5	(49.0 DNS)	24	13	28	49.0 DNE	5	238.5	161.5
37	Gallego Duran Marina	ESP	19	24	8	23	7	-27	25	48	11	(49.0 DNF)	241	165
38	Helbig Anke	GER	14	-27	11	26	25	18	26	14	-34	31	226	165
39	Maes Laura	BEL	18	22	28	17	20	(49.0 DSQ)	18	-43	31	12	258	166
40	Hanna Debbie	IRL	16	23	22	19	-28	4	38	29	-44	20	243	171
41	Bassadone Christina	GBR	(49.0 BFD)	10	18	27	10	12	-43	40	33	21	263	171
42	Murphy Annalise	IRL	-32	10	31	8	21	28	(49.0 OCS)	10	26	40	255	174
43	Szymczyk Natalia	POL	20	9	33	21	20	-37	32	-44	15	28	259	178
44	Weinzieher Anna	POL	15	15	27	20	17	-30	16	-45	30	39	254	179
45	Billing Emily	USA	16	-41	38	23	15	12	-40	37	23	30	275	194
46	Sigvardsdotter Sara	SWE	13	27	12	28	9	-39	33	-42	38	35	276	195
47	Tylinska Katarzyna	POL	23	18	17	17	-38	23	36	31	36	(49.0 BFD)	288	201
48	Mileviciute Ausra	LTU	26	16	-37	28	15	11	39	-47	42	36	297	213