Joan Cardona has won the Lanzarote Olympic Winter Regatta, held by the Real Club Náutico de Arrecife at Marina Rubicón from January 21-24. The competition attracted a group of some of the best Finn sailors in the world to Lanzarote, to race in a fleet of 23 boats from 17 countries.
The week started cloudy and with light winds, with the second day lost with too little wind, following by two final days of glamour conditions in sunshine and moderate breezes.
Canada’s Olympic representative Tom Ramshaw made the best of the first day, to lead overnight but then slipped back when racing resumed on Saturday. Three races on a fresh breeze on Saturday suited Turkey’s Alican Kaynar to move to the top, but eventually consistency paid for Cardona.
A long delay waiting for wind on the final day was rewarded with a freshening breeze and then the final fleet race was followed by the medal race for the top 10. Cardona took third in the fleet race and then just had to finish top 4 to secure the title. Berecz led throughout and with Cardona rounding the top in seventh, there was still work to do, however he pulled up to third at the finish to win by four points.
Current European Champion, Berecz, had a slow start to the week but had the best of the final two days to move up to third, while Kaynar had a tough final day to drop to third.
Cardona was the U23 World Champion in 2018 and World and European Under 23 Champion in 2019, and is current Under 23 European Champion and World Champion of Virtual Regatta (e-sailing). He is one of many sailors chasing the final Olympic place in Tokyo, which will take place on Porto, POR, in May.
Final results (medal race in brackets)
1 ESP 26 Joan Cardona 19 (3)
2 HUN 40 Zsombor Berecz 23 (1)
3 TUR 21 Alican Kaynar 28 (6)
4 CRO 10 Nenad Bugarin 38 (4)
5 NED 89 Nicholas Heiner 42 (5)
6 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 48 (2)
7 SUI 1 Nils Theuninck 50 (7)
8 CAN 18 Tom Ramshaw 53 (10)
9 CRO 1 Josip Olujic 57 (8)
10 ESP 7 Alejandro Muscat 60 (9)
Full results here: http://lanzarotewinterseries.com/resultados.php
Jon Emmett kindly spoke to several sailors during the week. Here are the interviews.
Day 1 – Tom Ramshaw - https://youtu.be/6nSnQdgtz8o
Day 1 – Max Salminen - https://youtu.be/imnQhoys8oI
Day 3 - Alican Kaynar - https://youtu.be/_ikaiVmWrVk
Day 4 - Joan Cardona - https://youtu.be/WhA9KcSZJEc
