|
|
Claire Lasko wins
Belgian Optimist Nationals
Glorious
sunshine and a SW force 3-4 greeted the 73 Optimist sailors from Belgium, The
Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Great Britain for the Belgium Optimist
Open Champions being held at Nieuwpoort, Belgium on the 28th and 29th of June. Race
one saw the fleet away to a cross tide.
Axel v Bladel (NED) made a great start arriving at the windward mark with
a long lead but as the race was likely to exceed the total time as no shorten
course was posted the race officer abandoned, waited for about 30 minutes and
then restarted the race with 2 instead of 3 laps.
Laura Maes (BEL) local favourite made no mistakes this time to win ahead
of the Swiss pair of Raphael Gabella and Olivier Gremaud.
In the
second race of the day, with the sea breeze having settled in and the sailors
having adjusted to the tidal conditions A. van Bladel came through to win ahead
of Gremaund and Jeoron Belis (BEL). Race 3
started with a slacking tide and saw Sander van Bladel (NED) pip Bob Fontaine (BEL),
another local favourite with Claire Lasko (GBR) finishing a strong 3rd.
With the time getting on and a barbeque awaiting the competitors, no
further races were sailed on Saturday. The
overnight leader board was interesting with Gremaud in first with 13 pts, S van
Bladel 2nd (17pts), Gabella 3rd (20pts) and Lasko 4th (24pts). A number of boats had two good races and a high scoring
result, with no discard until race 4. Sunday
again was a sunny day, but this time the wind came from the ESE force 3 for the
race 4. The course was very fair
with Lasko first at the windward mark having worked the middle right of the
course and Gijs Pelt (NED) having worked the middle left in second place.
They also finished in this order with Fontaine 3rd.
The
wind picked up for race 5 to an ESE 4/5 and with the wind now against the tide,
the wave height rose from slight to about 1.5 meter swell.
The heavier sailors faired well up the beat with Pelt finishing first
ahead of Astrid Zweistra (NED) in second and Fontaine 3rd.
As
time was getting on race 6 was to be the last race of the day with Fontaine
having a 2-point lead on Lasko who had finished 5th in the last race. Pelt made no mistake finishing the day with 2nd, 1st and 1st.
Maes finishing 2nd, but having picked up a black flag on Saturday had to count a
25th which put the National title out of reach. Fontaine could only finish 13th and with Lasko finishing 3rd,
left Lasko with the title of BELGIAN NATIONAL CHAMPION and an encouraging win
just before attending the Optimist European Championships in Starigrad, Croatia
on 5th-12th July. With consistency
being the key to this event Zweistra finished second overall and 2nd girl ahead
of the local boy, Fontaine. Results 1
Claire Lasko (GBR)
F
23pts
11,11,3,1,5,3 2
Astrid Zweistra (NED)
F
28pts
6,13,7,8,2,5 3
Bob Fontaine (BEL)
M
31pts
10,14,2,3,3,13 4
Sander v. Bladel (NED)
M
34pts
13,4,1,12,4,20 5
Barnabe Deliens (BEL)
M
39pts
4,15,10,4,37,6
|
|