Source: Warnemünde Week.
Day two of the 2024 EurILCA Europa Cup GER / Warnemünde Week again brought challenging conditions. The wind did decrease in strength, but some gusts still exceeded the 20 knot mark. The waves had also increased in strength. With a wind turning to the southwest and a current coming from the opposite direction, a swell of around one meter built up. This put the powerful athletes in a strong position, and the leaders from the previous day almost without exception confirmed their position. Only in the ILCA 6 was there a change in leadership: World Champion Anne-Marie Rindom DEN overtook her Danish compatriot Anna Munch DEN with two daily victories.
The Danish Women’s team in the ILCA 6 is heading for the Olympics: After Anne-Marie Rindom had to take a break due to an arm injury and therefore also skipped the Kiel Week, she is now sailing again largely pain-free. The 33-year-old dominated the action in her group, winning both races. In the parallel group, colleague Anna Munch came in second twice and is now lurking in the first chasing position in the overall rankings – just one point behind. “It feels good again. The Warnemünder Woche is the last regatta test before the Olympic Games. On Wednesday we’ll go home for a day and then we’ll travel on to Marseille.”
Hannah Anderssohn GER lost some ground on her home turf. With sixth and third place, she remains in the lead in fourth place overall. Morten Ben Borchardt GER, a student from Kiel, moved up to the current bronze position with a first and fifth place. “Stronger wind is generally good for me, the waves are not so important then, even if they were a bit harder today than yesterday. I’m happy with third place. It would be great to defend it. But I’m not stressing too much about it.”
In his wake, Morten Ben Borchardt has other strong athletes in addition to Hannah Anderssohn. The Finnish Monika Mikkola FIN, winner of the Kiel Week a week ago, is one of them. The Olympic participant is currently sixth. Another starter for Marseille still has to get used to the rough European conditions. Vaimo ‘Oi’ A Ripley SAM from the Pacific island state of Samoa has slipped to 65th place. She received a wildcard for the Olympic Games and is preparing in northern Germany. After the Kiel Week, she trained in Hamburg and then traveled on to Warnemünde.
The leader of the ILCA 7 class is sticking to his course of consistently achieving top placings. The Dane Andreas Krabbe-Christensen DEN has not yet won a day in the four races so far, but as the competition is struggling with fluctuating results, he extended his lead with two more second places. The Swede Ludvig Lindqvist SWE had the strongest day with two daily victories. However, he is still lurking in third place overall, behind the North-American Daniel Escudero USA.
In ILCA 4, the junior class of the Olympic disciplines, the Czech Jiri Tomes CZE remains the benchmark. His record so far: four starts, four wins! Nothing changed behind him on the second day either. The Cypriot Anatoli Zoubovski CYP remains second ahead of Beáta Dokoupilová CZE.
Two more days of fun and racing are ahead to determine the winners!
Overall results – 2024 EurILCA Europa Cup Trophy
Report by Agustín Argüelles – EurILCA | Source: Warnemünde Week | Photos by Pepe Hartmann.
