September 10, 2019
Today will be awarded
Today, in Togliatti, on the basis of the Druzhba yacht club, the Russian championship in the Optimist class will end. Recall that on Monday the final races began, and 303 racers compete in four fleets – “gold”, “silver”, “bronze” and without ribbons. In the "golden" fleet, 70 riders are playing medals.
The final series began with a southwest wind. His strength was more than 5 knots. During the races, the wind sometimes weakened to 3-4 knots, but by the end of the competition day it gained very decent strength – 8-9 knots and changed direction to the north-west. Weather conditions allowed the organizers to conduct three races in the "golden" fleet and two in all the rest.
“The number of athletes in the Optimist class is increasing. Let's hope that quality comes from this, ”says Alexander Lazdin, representative of the organizing committee of the Russian championship. – It's nice that many regions have joined the work. All of Russia is represented in Tolyatti: from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. I did not notice that the wind changed much when approaching the shore. The chief judge of the competition, Vadim Evgenievich Mechanikov, perfectly knows the situation, feels it and turns to other people for advice. We work in a well-coordinated team. ”
According to the results of eight Russian championship races, Artem Maksimkin, a rider from the Vodnik Sailing Club, earned a huge advantage. He has seven first arrivals and one second, which went to discharge. Seven points is the grandmaster result for such prestigious competitions. On the last day of the competition, Artem should try very hard to give up such a comfortable advantage.
In the women's standings, a similar situation has developed. Marina Babkina, an athlete at the Academy of Sailing, is 19 points ahead of her closest rival Alisa Ivanova (PK Vodnik). In the standings of the younger youths, Dmitry Eremin from Krestovsky Island holds the lead. Following him are Artem Cherpita (CSKA) and Ilyas Yakhin ("Friendship"). The first place among the youngest girls is occupied by Dina Zhilkina (Vodnik PK), the second by Eva Turkina (Krestovsky Ostrov), the third by Yulia Naymushina (Sailing Academy).
“The conditions were difficult, the result could be better, I am the third in girls. There is a very diverse wind in Tolyatti, it is difficult to choose the favorable side, because the wind changes during the race. There is a difficult struggle at the Russian championship – I did not expect the girls who went worse than me to gain experience so quickly and begin to overtake me, ”shared the participant of the competition Arina Bratashenko (SSHOR No. 9, Azov).
“The races lasted a long time. For a long time the wind could not be established, a lot of calls. Honestly, not happy with the weather today. I like a more stable and strong wind. I am in the “silver” fleet, did not live up to my expectations and was not ready for such weather conditions, ”said the participant of the competition Andrei Ostapov (Krestovsky Island, St. Petersburg).
The Russian Championship 2019 is one of the stages of selection for the national team for the European and World Championships in the Optimist class. Today the names of the winners and prize winners of the competitions that will represent Russia at the most prestigious starts of the 2020 season will be announced.
Olga Sidorovskaya,
press service of the All-Russian Association of the class "Optimist"
127 September 10, 2019 # 9455
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