Unstoppable Gaspic

Croatian Finn sailor 21 points clear at European championship in Bulgaria

Two victories collected by Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) on the fourth day of the 2009 Finn European Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, give the Croat a safe 21 points lead on his opponents. The next racing day promises to be intense for Gaspic’s closest rivals, as only five points separate second to sixth. Team Skandia GBR sailors Giles Scott and Ed Wright are on equal points and only one point from Tapio Nirkko (FIN), four from Marin Misura (CRO) and five from Pieter-Jan Postma (NED).

The wind was light to medium and shifty, but provided good racing. “The wind oscillated no more than 10 degrees and averaged 8 to 10 knots” explained PRO Peter Reggio. “Under these conditions it was important to give the sailors a fair start. We postponed the start twice during the procedure to have a fair line. After a general recall the fleet went under black flag but everybody was clear.”

“I had a good start on the left of the line and went to the middle” explains Gaspic (CRO) “Marin Misura was in first, just in front of me. I was very fast on the run and passed Misura. I sailed conservatively most of the time controlling the fleet.” Giles Scott (GBR) sailed up into second, in front of Misura (CRO) and Andrew Mills (GBR).

Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) didn’t stop there, taking the second race of the day by an impressive margin. “It was very tactical, I sailed up the middle again and could see half of the fleet on the left with more pressure, but I had clear wind and great speed. I decided to control the sailors on the right and keep an eye on the left. I was very patient, until I could see I was clearly in front. When I got fresh wind from the right, I increased my lead to 70 meters by the top mark.
I gained even more ground on the run. Pieter-Jan Postma was impressive on the second beat, and got me worried for some time. He rounded the bottom mark in 7th place and was second at the top. At one time, it looked like he could pass me, but again I waited patiently in the middle of the course. Finally I kept a good lead on him, but he also had a good lead on the others by the top mark.”

Gaspic goes into the last day of racing, before the medal race, with a 21 points lead. He is number 1 on the World rankings, took the bronze at the 2009 Finn Gold Cup and won the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères.

Tomas Vika (CZE) remains at the top of the Junior classification, closely followed by Filippo Baldassari (ITA). Ionnis Mitakis (GRE) is now third Junior. They are placed in 24th, 25th and 26th positions. Jakub pasik (POL) and Josip Olujic (CRO) are their main threat in 27th and 28th places!!

The last two races in the fleet racing are scheduled for Friday. That will be the last chance for sailors to break into the top Ten, before the medal race.

Results:

Pos	SailNo	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Tot	Net
1	CRO 524	Ivan GASPIC	CRO	1	3	4	8	-13	2	1	1	33	20
2	GBR 41	Giles SCOTT	GBR	5	1	14	12	2	-17	2	5	58	41
3	GBR 111	Edward WRIGHT	GBR	2	4	(76.0 OCS)	11	1	4	9	10	117	41
4	FIN 218	Tapio NIRKKO	FIN	9	2	2	4	-19	14	5	6	61	42
5	CRO 25	Marin MISURA	CRO	4	-20	19	5	3	3	3	8	65	45
6	NED 842	Pieter-Jan POSTMA	NED	3	8	16	-34	9	1	7	2	80	46
7	GBR 634	Andrew MILLS	GBR	10	5	1	-17	5	11	4	17	70	53
8	EST 2	Deniss KARPAK	EST	6	7	8	3	-26	16	10	4	80	54
9	POL 17	Piotr KULA	POL	7	14	5	-45	12	8	6	16	113	68
10	GBR 88	Mark ANDREWS	GBR	19	9	(76.0 OCS)	16	4	6	11	11	152	76
11	SWE 6	Bjorn ALLANSSON	SWE	8	10	13	13	-27	19	12	7	109	82
12	NOR 1	Peer MOBERG	NOR	11	24	3	(76.0 DNF)	6	15	17	9	161	85
13	POL 7	Rafal SZUKIEL	POL	13	21	10	18	7	(76.0 BFD)	18	3	166	90
14	AUT 3	Florian RAUPASCHL	AUT	12	16	-34	9	15	9	8	21	124	90
15	FRA 115	Thomas LE BRETON	FRA	20	11	7	14	16	13	14	-48	143	95
16	CYP 19	Haris PAPADOPOULOS	CYP	17	23	9	2	14	28	15	-37	145	108
17	RUS 9	Eduard SKORNYAKOV	RUS	14	15	18	23	11	-33	16	13	143	110
18	UKR 1	Oleksiy BORYSOV	UKR	18	19	11	6	-38	10	31	19	152	114
19	POR 5	Ferderico PINHEIRO DE MELO	POR	15	33	6	-47	8	7	22	28	166	119
20	ITA 101	Riccardo CORDOVANI	ITA	21	17	15	20	18	22	-28	12	153	125
21	CZE 1	Michael MAIER	CZE	16	13	21	-28	21	21	21	23	164	136
22	ITA 117	Giorgio POGGI	ITA	22	12	23	-32	20	18	24	18	169	137
23	FRA 112	Jonathan LOBERT	FRA	(76.0 OCS)	6	28	40	24	5	13	27	219	143
24	CZE 52	Tomas VIKA	CZE	28	25	31	27	29	12	(76.0 DNF)	20	248	172
25	ITA 123	Filippo BALDASSARI	ITA	24	22	33	-51	25	24	29	15	223	172
26	GRE 77	Ioannis MITAKIS	GRE	37	31	-40	7	17	40	30	14	216	176
27	POL 45	Jakub PASIK	POL	41	(76.0 DNC)	27	1	22	41	26	35	269	193
28	CRO 11	Josip OLUJIC	CRO	25	39	26	31	10	39	25	-42	237	195
29	HUN 6	Gaszton PAL	HUN	27	38	12	38	30	29	23	-66	263	197
30	RUS 1	Alex SELIVANOV	RUS	31	35	-43	10	41	35	33	29	257	214
31	EST 11	Lauri VAINSALU	EST	23	34	37	44	-54	23	35	22	272	218
32	GRE 8	Alexandros DRAGOUTSIS	GRE	(76.0 DNC)	29	29	30	23	31	55	40	313	237
33	UKR 5	Andriy GUSENKO	UKR	36	37	38	-43	32	20	37	38	281	238
34	RUS 57	Egor TERPIGOREV	RUS	39	41	45	15	35	-56	43	26	300	244
35	GBR 642	John TREMLETT	GBR	26	30	(76.0 OCS)	41	28	30	39	55	325	249
36	RUS 707	Egor LARIONOV	RUS	33	32	42	24	49	34	36	-65	315	250
37	CZE 3	Rudolf LIDARIK	CZE	30	44	51	35	(76.0 DNF)	27	38	34	335	259
38	POL 12	Milosz WOJEWSKI	POL	53	45	17	49	51	26	19	(76.0 DNF)	336	260
39	GER 771	Jan KURFELD	GER	(76.0 DNF)	18	76.0 DNE	48	42	25	20	31	336	260
40	GER 717	Sebastian KAULE	GER	40	27	20	53	34	(76.0 BFD)	45	47	342	266
41	BUL 24	Mihail KOPANOV	BUL	29	-54	52	22	40	46	44	33	320	266
42	GER 500	Philipe FISCHER	GER	48	-53	32	36	43	43	40	24	319	266
43	GER 772	Ulli KURFELD	GER	42	28	39	-50	39	42	46	30	316	266
44	CZE 9	Michal HRUBY	CZE	38	26	22	(76.0 DNF)	76.0 BFD	32	27	50	347	271
45	EST 3	Heiko EESALU	EST	32	40	36	21	57	37	50	-58	331	273
46	AUS 54	Nathan QUIRIK	AUS	-65	51	24	29	31	49	59	32	340	275
47	UKR 21	Anton SADCHYKOV	UKR	43	46	-47	37	36	38	47	39	333	286
48	CZE 81	Tomas HRNCAL	CZE	47	48	30	-55	46	50	34	36	346	291
49	TUR 211	Alican KAYNAR	TUR	34	36	44	46	33	(76.0 BFD)	49	51	369	293
50	HUN 8	Marton BELICZAY	HUN	35	42	56	(76.0 OCS)	37	36	41	49	372	296
51	CZE 21	Jan CAJCIK	CZE	49	55	(76.0 DNC)	62	45	44	42	25	398	322
52	RUS 91	Viacheslav SIVENKOV	RUS	52	50	41	39	52	52	-58	46	390	332
53	RUS 17	Vasiliy KRAVCHENKO	RUS	46	57	55	-64	55	48	32	45	402	338
54	GRE 71	Panagiotis DAVOURLIS	GRE	51	47	50	25	59	53	-61	61	407	346
55	IRL 1	Roger Anthony CRAIG	IRL	60	56	(76.0 OCS)	19	61	55	62	41	430	354
56	BUL 8	Anastas PETROV	BUL	56	-60	49	52	47	54	53	43	414	354
57	CZE 11	Patrik DEUTSCHER	CZE	50	59	62	33	53	57	-66	44	424	358
58	BUL 855	Dimitar VANGELOV	BUL	54	66	46	26	48	64	65	(76.0 DNC)	445	369
59	POL 9	Tomasz KOSMICKI	POL	45	43	25	(76.0 DNC)	76.0 DNC	76.0 DNC	60	54	455	379
60	GRE 6	Alexandros RARIS	GRE	44	49	60	61	60	51	56	-62	443	381
61	ITA 134	Vittorio D'ALBERTAS	ITA	58	65	35	60	50	58	-70	59	455	385
62	CRO 52	Nikola BARIC	CRO	55	-61	61	54	44	61	54	57	447	386
63	BUL 82	Georgi YORDANOV	BUL	(76.0 DNC)	58	54	70	68	45	48	52	471	395
64	TUR 35	Efe KUYUMCU	TUR	(76.0 OCS)	52	63	66	56	47	52	60	472	396
65	BUL 77	Alexandar ALEXANDROV	BUL	59	63	48	-68	63	62	51	56	470	402
66	GRE 21	Antonis TSOTRAS	GRE	57	62	58	42	62	(76.0 BFD)	64	69	490	414
67	CZE 55	Milan HRNCAL	CZE	63	-69	59	69	64	68	57	53	502	433
68	BUL 1	Stoil STOILOV	BUL	61	68	57	59	58	63	-73	68	507	434
69	USA 666	Bogomil PEHLIVANOV	USA	69	71	53	58	67	66	-74	63	521	447
70	RUS 72	Roman KOTLYAROV	RUS	62	64	68	67	66	60	63	-70	520	450
71	CZE 221	Daniel VINKL	CZE	70	(76.0 DNC)	64	56	65	67	69	64	531	455
72	GRE 14	Anastsios KATSIMIDIS	GRE	68	-73	66	57	69	70	72	67	542	469
73	RUS 71	Leonid KLYAYMAN	RUS	66	67	69	(76.0 DSQ)	72	59	67	72	548	472
74	RUS 7	Alexander NOVIKOV	RUS	67	-72	65	63	71	65	68	76.0 DNE	547	475
75	ITA 36	Mario BORROI	ITA	64	70	67	65	70	69	-71	71	547	476