Aussies finish fourth at Tornado Europeans
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| 'Fleet on final day - Event website www.tornado2008.gr/- Tornado European Championship 2008' © |
The local heroes triumphed on home waters and were treated to horns and sirens from the spectators as the crossed the finish for the last time ahead of the French teams to seal their victory.
It was tough racing on the water, and all of the top four crews had there worst race on this final day.
Racing got underway after a postponement of 1 hour 40 minutes on the water as the seabreeze was late to fill in and settle down. The first race of the day started in six knots of breeze and there proved to be more pressure on the right hand side of the course. Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher lead from the right corner with the Italians Marcolini/Bianchi in second place throughout the race.
The real interest was between the Paschalidis/Trigonis (GRE), Guichard/Guyader (FRA) and Besson/Jarlegan (FRA) who finished 6,8,9 respectively to bring the Top three within one point of each other for the overall lead.
The second race of the day once again got away in six knots of breeze minutes within the 1600hr final cut off.
The trend for the day seemed to be the right hand side of the course paying despite the left being better all week.
The top four on the score sheet found themselves on the left hand side of the course for the first upwind which was to play into the Greeks hands as they had the best drop race. The young German Mittelmeier brothers won the race followed by Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola (ARG). The Italians Marcolini/Bianchi came in third.
In the fight for the European Championship the Greeks were defending off the French for the final lap to clinch victory.
www.tornado.org
Quotes:
Darren Bundock/ Glenn Ashby (World Champions from Australia): 'We use these races as a means of relaxation. After tension required for preparing our participation in the Beijing Olympics, Thessaloniki is the ideal venue for regrouping and gathering of thoughts.'
Billy Besson/ Arnaud Jarlegan (The French leading team):'We will not participate in the Olympic Games because we did not qualify. We do however desire the title of the European Champion. The fact that many of our competitors made it to Qingdao, gives us the advantage to be stress free.'
Iordanis Pashalidis/ Kostas Trigonis (Defenders of the title):'Nothing is yet final. We are presently mending the top of our sail to achieve required speed. The French took the lead, however four more races are pending .'
www.tornado2008.gr/
FINAL RESULTS
| POS | SAIL# | HELM | CREW | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | PTS |
| 1 | GRE 7 | PASHALIDIS, Iordanis | TRIGONIS, Kostas | 6 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 32 |
| 2 | FRA 71 | GUICHARD, Yann | GUYADER, Alex | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 36 |
| 3 | FRA 5 | BESSON, Billy | JARLEGAN, Arnaud | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 36 |
| 4 | AUS 8 | BUNDOCK, Darren | ASHBY, Glenn | 4 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 45 |
| 5 | ITA 257 | MARCOLINI, Francesco | BIANCHI, Eduardo | 2 | 10 | 6 | DNF | 15 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 50 |
| 6 | AUT 3 | HAGARA, Roman | STEINACHER, Hans Peter | 5 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 53 |
| 7 | ARG 1 | LANGE, Santiago | ESPINOLA, Carlos | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 54 |
| 8 | GBR 4 | MCMILLAN, Leigh | HOWDEN, Will | 7 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 56 |
| 9 | FRA 11 | MORVAN, Francois | VANDAME, Mathieu | 3 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 10 | OCS | 12 | 4 | 57 |
| 10 | GER 5 | MITTELMEIER, Tino | MITTELMEIER, Niko | 12 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 62 |
| 11 | FRA 1 | REVIL, Xavier | ESPAGNON, Christophe | 8 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 64 |
| 12 | AUT 8 | ZAJAC, Thomas | CZAJKA, Thomas | 13 | 9 | 15 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 68 |
| 13 | GER 7 | POLGAR, Johannes | SPALTEHOLZ, Florian | 11 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 76 |
| 14 | GRE 41 | MOURIKIS, Kostas | GIRIS, Kostas | 15 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 6 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 16 | 109 |
| 15 | GRE 1 | KOSMOGLOU, Efstratios | THEODORAKIS, Dimitrios | 14 | 15 | DNF | 9 | 16 | 16 | 8 | 15 | DNF | 116 |
| 16 | GRE 9 | MAVROS, Nikos | PARIANOS, Polis | 16 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 19 | 17 | 11 | 14 | DNF | 124 |
| 17 | ITA 259 | SAPONARA, Michele | MISSO, Marco | 17 | 17 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 18 | OCS | 16 | DNC | 140 |
| 18 | UKR 11 | KALYNCHEV, Pavlo | SHAFRANYUK, Andriy | DNF | DNC | 13 | 14 | 9 | 13 | DNC | DNC | DNC | 141 |
| 19 | GER 1049 | BETZ, Markus | HOLZSCHUH, Stephanie | 19 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 16 | 19 | 15 | 143 |
| 20 | ITA 25 | SCLAVI, Lorenzo | REGGIO, Paolo | 18 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 20 | DNF | 17 | 18 | 17 | 145 |
| 21 | GRE 17 | GIACHOUDIS, Sotiris | VEZIROGLOU, Dimitris | 21 | 21 | DNF | DNF | 21 | DNF | 19 | 20 | 6 | 154 |
| 22 | GRE 77 | PAPADOPOULOS, Mihalis | PAVLIDIS, Raphael | 20 | 18 | 20 | 20 | DNC | DNC | 18 | DNC | DNC | 165 |
by mpg
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