Double win for Croatia

As British sailors score bring hoome two silvers at the Laser Europeans

There was a double win for Croatia at the Laser European Championships in Tallinn, but there was a double silver for Skandia Team GBR in both the standard and Radial.

The final day started with slow shifty wind, blowing 2 knots, but kept increasing and reached up to 5 knots by the second race. Laser Standards held two final races today, managing to complete the maximum number of races – 12. Laser Radials sailed 3 races today, to make up for the lost racing due to yesterday’s lack of wind, completing 11 races in total.

In Laser Standard, Croatian Tonci Stipanovic won his first European Championships title, beating Olympic winner and world champion Paul Goodison of Great Britain by 10 points. European bronze went to Andreas Geritzer from Austria, while in the Trophy score, Australian Tom Slingsby came third.

“I dreamt about it every day, but you can never tell for sure if this is day that you will become the European Champion," Stipanovic said. "But I had a feeling this morning, did the best that I could and now I am the first Croatian to win the Europeans in Laser Standard.”

Paul Goodison settled with the silver medal this time. “I am a little bit disappointed of coming second but that’s just sailing. It has been a really tricky venue in Tallinn with the wind predominantly been off shore, very shifty and quite big differences in pressure. It has been a difficult regatta, but we have been doing lots of racing and the best guy won in the end.”

In Laser Radial, the new European Champion is Tina Mihelic, also from Croatia. Mihelic, who has been the leader since Day 1 of racing, won by an impressive 19 points. “I had been sailing really well the entire week and I had a good feeling for today," she said. "When we started the final races in the morning, I was leading by already 15 points, so I was confident and not under much pressure. I liked the conditions in Tallinn, nice weather, nice wind, and I was really confident as I had good speed, so I was just waiting for the others to make mistakes."

Silver medal went to Charlotte Dobson and bronze to Lithuanian Gintare Sheidt.

“I’m really, really pleased,“ Dobson commented. “I think I was only second by the skin of my teeth in the end and would’ve have been really disappointed if I’d not finished in the top three after being thereabouts all week. We had pretty much the range of conditions, from five to 20 knots during the week, but I really like it when it’s a mixture of things – plus it’s flat water and pretty shifty which I enjoy.”

Dobson continued: “The last few events have gone really well for me. There have been a couple of people missing from here and the Worlds is bound to be a harder challenge, but I’m certainly happy with the way everything is going and having the Worlds at home is going to be pretty cool.”

Laser Radial U21 European Champion was Martin Chloe from Great Britain, silver medallist Tuula Tenkanen from Finland and bronze belongs to Mathilde de Kerangat from France.

Results:

Laser standards (top 30)

Laser Radials