Latvia has reportedly emerged victorious at Yachting Russia championship this time. The regatta was held last week with j/80 International on-design sportsboats.
It was the 9th edition of the Yachting Russia championship which is hosted by Fraglia Velva Riva, one among the oldest of yachting clubs from Europe. The race is meant for Russian-speaking sailing community.
Around sixty athletes from Ukraine, Russian, Latvia, Italy, Germany and Belarus were distributed into 11 squads for the race. The championship allows each of the skippers to pick 1 crew member from all the participants & the remaining crew is decided by a lottery. Given such a selection method, each squad is somehow forced to get involved in team training, organization & a unified team-work culture. The winner is the squad which shows up with great team work with least mistakes. It’s quite a unique and fun format leading to amazing camaraderie & fun parties among the team members as sun sets.
The initial 3 days feature an unusual ambience for Lake Garda with lighting, heavily overcast sky & variable breeze blowing from all wind direction. However, it was the harmonious and accurate operation on part of the racing committee that finally enabled the sailors to take part in forty0three matches to decide the top 4 crews. It was followed by semi-final meetings & selection of championship participants & consolation finals.
Since the very start of the championship, the participants have shown signification escalation of skill. The final day of the race featured the perfect ambience with the shining sun and nice wind. The finalists had quite an intense fight and finally it was Riga’s Sergey Pervushkin who won the honor for Latvia on Baltic Sea. Russian sailor Sergey Ezhikoy came second while it was Dmitry Zaritsky who was the second runner-up.