Home win for Neugodnikov

Nick Houchin reports on a comptitive EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship in Moscow

Last week (9th – 14th September) saw sixteen teams from as many European nations compete at the Sailing School of Moscow Physical Culture and Sports Committee in Moscow, Russia, in the Grade 1 EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship.

The entry list included some of the world’s best match racers including local favourite Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS), Peter Wibroe (DEN), Steffan Lindberg (FIN), Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) and Eric Morrin (SUI) who are all ranked in the top 20 on the ISAF world match race rankings. The fleet also included British National Champion Nick Cherry as well as the Luna Rossa Americas Cup strategist Francesco Bruni (ITA).

The first round involved the fleet split into two round robins with the top four in each winning a place in the quarter final. However, there were some surprises after some closely fought matches in some shifty conditions. One of these was notably 4th seed Morvan (FRA) being eliminated and also Cherry (GBR) who was seeded 14th qualifying for the quarter final. He did this by winning a three way tie with Marinho (POR) and Basic (CRO) to finish 2nd in his group behind Bruni (ITA).

With the wet and cold Moscow weather still persistent the quarter final top eight round robin saw the standard raised with narrower winning margins and plenty of penalty exchanges. After a long day out on the water Neugodnikov (RUS), Lindberg (FIN), Weiller (ESP) and Cherry (GBR) came off the better from these battles and secured their spots in the semi finals.

With the semi finals set to be settled from a best of five series the tension and anxiety could be sensed at day four’s morning skippers briefing. However, the whole series of races was not required as Neugodnikov (RUS) and Weiller (ESP) came out on top of 3-0 score lines. This left Cherry (GBR) and Lindberg (FIN) to fight it out for 3rd place.

The final and petit final took place on day five with a large number of spectators out on the water to see local favourite Neugodnikov (RUS) claim the European title beating Weiller (ESP) 3-0. The petit final resulted in Nick Cherry (GBR) and his team of Nick Houchin, Matt Adams and Nick Butt keep up the level of performance that had become expected of them throughout the regatta by beating Lindberg 2-0 (FIN) to claim the final spot on the podium.

RESULTS (Top 8)
1st Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS)
2nd Manuel Weiller (EPS)
3rd Nick Cherry (GBR)
4th Steffan Lindberg (FIN)
5th Alvaro Marinho (POR)
6th Francesco Bruni (ITA)
7th Peter Wibroe (DEN)
8th Tomislav Basic (CRO)