Zsombor Berecz, Joan Cardona and Milan Vujasinovic won Finn European titles in Gdynia . . . the name missing was Giles Scott, winning a Finn title is a work in progress for the British Olympic sailor!
Scott finished fourth at the Finn Gold Cup earlier in the year and now saw any chance of retaining the European title disappear with a race to go.
He has little time to get back to his winning form before he defends his 2016 Olympic title.
He is skipping Kiel Week, the only other major Finn event this year and heading back to rejoin the British America’s Cup team in Portsmouth, and from there to Auckland, New Zealand, to start tuning the new AC75 boat ready for the first races there in December.
Then follows the Prada Cup Challenger Finals, January 15 to 22 February 2021, and the actual 36th America’s Cup – if INEOS Team UK win the Prada Cup – from 6 to 21 March 2021.
All this means it will be difficult for Scott to get anywhere like the normal Finn training he would expect leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.
Scott rued his missed chances in Gdynia.
“We have had a very tricky week. The conditions here have been challenging to say the least and we have had a lot of racing in offshore, super shifty winds and really hard to manage.”
“The key to it as ever is consistency and unfortunately today in the first race I just got the wrong side of a 40-50 degree shift and that was it, and that was enough for the Hungarian to walk away with the win.”
On his preparation for the Europeans.
“I think the training has been going OK considering how tricky it has been to get too much done.”
“We have done a reasonable amount of sailing over the past eight weeks but only the two of us, so good to see that Henry (Wetherell) and I are going well and I suppose ultimately everything is now about what happens in 10 months time.”
At the European Championship in Gdynia, Poland, Zsombor Berecz of Hungary, took gold without winning a race and with a race to spare.
Berecz started the day with a three point lead ahead of Scott, with two races to go.
An eighth place for Berecz in the first race (R9) with Scott down in 22nd was enough for him to wrap-up the title with a seven point lead.
Nenad Bugarin of Croatia was the race nine winner.
The final tenth race was a big win for Facundo Olezza, from Argentina, while Scott had a close run battle to hang on to second place overall, finishing tied on points with Joan Cardona of Spain.
Cardona also retained the U23 European title, silver went to Oskari Muhonen, from Finland, and bronze to Estonia’s Taavi Valter Taveter.
Milan Vujasinovic, from Croatia, won the Finn European Masters.
Winner in the Grand Masters, for those aged 50-59, was Felix Denikaev of Russia.
The Grand Grand Masters went to Marc Allain des Beauvais of France and the Legend (over 70)winner was Flemming Bender Jensen, from Denmark.
Next year the U23 and Open European Championship takes place in Hyeres in April.
Finn 2020 European Championship – Final after 10 races 1 discard (70 entries)
1st HUN Zsombor Berecz – – 53 pts
2nd GBR Giles Scott – – 61 pts
3rd ESP Joan Cardona Méndez – – 61 pts
4th ESP Alejandro Muscat – – 71 pts
5th NED Nicholas Heiner – – 76 pts
6th TUR Alican Kaynar – – 78 pts
7th ARG Facundo Olezza Bazan – – 82 pts
8th CRO Josip Olujic – – 83 pts
9th CRO Nenad Bugarin – – 84 pts
10th SUI Nils Theuninck – – 85 pts
11th GBR Henry Wetherell – – 95 pts
12th CZE Ondřej Teplý – – 103 pts
13th CRO Milan Vujasinovic – – 125 pts
14th GER Max Kohlhoff – – 127 pts
15th FRA Lobert Jonathan – – 140 pts
16th POL Piotr Kula – – 147 pts
17th EST Deniss Karpak – – 151 pts
18th FIN Oskari Muhonen – – 151 pts
19th ESP Pablo Guitián Sarria – – 151 pts
20th FRA Antoine Devineau – – 172 pts
