Formula European Championships - Rhodes
17 June 2005
The European Formula Championships in Rhodos has been the biggest windsurfing competition so far this year. The event attracted 113 men and 10 women, whom had travelled from 26 countries and four continents. With most of the competitors staying within a stone's throw from the race site, it was quite a communal affair.
The wind blew cross-shore from the left every day, with very little variation in direction, only the strength of the breeze changed from hour to hour. A huge amount of effort had been put into ensuring that the event was very spectator friendly. The start line was set metres from the shore; the leeward mark was rounded to starboard so the fleet sailed into the shore and the finish line involved a tight gybe 5metres from the beach. The split fleet system operating for the mens' fleet allowed competitors to watch their rivals compete, which only added to the excitement of the event.
The first day had little wind; this was because it was raining in Athens, (according to locals?) However at 3pm there was enough to run two races. Ross Williams and his training partner Argentinean Champion Gonzalo Costa Hoevel both won a race and ended the day in first and second overall. In the girls fleet only two of the girls had registered 11m sails, Polish windsurfer, Marta Hlavati and Italian windsurfer, Verena Fauster. This meant that both Marta and Verena had 9m's as their smallest sails for later in the regatta. This, for Marta, proved rather disastrous. Alison Shreeve finished 1st in both of these races, pulling out a huge lead.
The next 3 days produced increasingly stronger winds, reaching 25+ knots for four races. It was surprising that the reigning European Champion, Wojtek Brzozowski performed so well in the increasing wind. He achieved many of his top results on his 9m sail. Antoine Albeau also excelled in these conditions pulling him into contention for the title. Antoine commented, "These are the conditions I love. I hope for even more wind tomorrow."
In a race that surprised many; Wojtek thought he was over the line and went round the ends. After leaving the start last, he managed to grind his way back through the fleet to 9th showing incredible resilience. Antoine failed to capitalise on Wojtek's mistake as Dennis Little (NED13) managed to lead the race from start to finish. This was a far cry from the Dutchman who got destroyed by the shoredump at the British National championships in Hove only a week earlier.
In true Greek fashion the planned early starts were always delayed by minor incidents. On one such day, the committee boat failed to turn up until 2pm as the skipper hadn't been paid for the day before. Despite the committee's claims that everything would run smoothly, the committee boat lost her anchor, and the buoys started to drift due to the increase in wind, resulting in many general recalls and delays to the schedule.
In the Women's fleet, France's Sarah Herbert, Italy's Verena and Great Britain's Lucy Horwood were starting to challenge the Australian for the championship. However Alison showed great consistency and managed always stay inside the top 3. In the end it was Alison who managed to win the event, putting Lucy Horwood into second place, but the first European.
The Brits performed well at this event. Both Ross and Dan Ellis scored well in the qualifying rounds allowing a higher risk strategy to be played out in the gold fleet. Keith Atkinson showed real potential in several races where he was in the top 10 of the Gold fleet, but the rough sea-state in the windier races hindered his overall result. Alan Jackson managed to finish 17th in two Gold fleet races when the wind was howling, proving his calibre. Hugh Sims Williams failed to make the Gold fleet but set to work on improving his ranking, managing to win a race as the event drew to a close.
Two battles were really taking form in the Gold fleet. Antoine was catching up Wojtek for the title and Micah Buzianis was catching Ross Williams for 3rd place. Going into the last day Wojtek was leading and Ross was 3rd, but after two poor results by Wojtek, which he discarded, the Frenchman, took the lead with a 2nd and 3rd. Micah put on an awesome show, having the day of his life( two bullets and a 2nd), to take 3rd place pushing Ross in to 4th ( 3rd European). Ross sailed well on the last day but couldn't match Micah's new form.
A new European formula windsurfing champion was crowned in one of the most competitive fleets seen in recent years. The Frenchman, Antoine "Deuxieme" had finally broken his duck to win a major championship.
Hugh is sponsored by O'Neill Wetsuits, Starboard, Windsurfer's World.