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Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei (ITA) just won the 2018 Junior World Championship for the Nacra 17! They won the only race today, ultimately winning 6 of the 7 races that were run for the Nacra 17 and were clearly the class of the field. Upwind the racing was typically quite close, but the Italians had a read edge downwind, and the only race they didn’t win was the first super windy race of the regatta.

Their dominance is even more outstanding given they are both U21 sailors, and therefore have two more years of eligibility at the Junior level.

The Federazione Italiana Vela, Italian National Team, clearly has something to be proud of in their Nacra 17 fleet. Italian sailors have now won all three major titles in 2018, Worlds, Euros, and Juniors! World Sailor of the Year candidates, Ruggerto Tita and Caterina Banti took a clean sweep of the season, winning every regatta they entered.

The Nacra 17 fleet was small here in Marseille, with the championship not yet established and a few of the younger teams off in Japan, but it is certainly diverse! The eight boats come from seven nations and four continents.

Tayla RIETMAN and Lachlan WHITE (AUS) were the only team to take a race win from the Italians, and relished the strong home-style conditions. “We’re so happy to be here in warm and sunny Southern France. Back home it’s a bit rough right now, so any chance to get out and race in such great conditions is fantastic,” said Tayla!

In third place were Javier ARRIBAS HARTEN with Adriana BARRON (PER), representing the team farthest away from home, battled hard and were very happy with their racing. Peru is hosting the 2019 Pan Am games and they plan on racing there and continuing on with their campaign, picking up the Peruvian 49erFX team to travel and work with next season.

Marseilles France is hosting more than 200 sailors from 28 nations for the 2018 Junior Worl Championship of 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17. Held from 28 august to 1st september 2018. © Pierick Jeannoutot

How This Championship Will Be Remembered

This wraps up the 2018 Junior World Championship in Marseille France. The championship will be remembered for it’s challenging conditions, huge fleets, and for the highly competent hosts.

With Mistral conditions for the final three days, these teams have shared in the common challenge of being pushed to the limit by conditions in racing that matters. There is no doubt that years from now, when these teams are less fresh and young than today they will still be swapping stories of the hard ways they learned to get around the course here in Marseille.

If the Olympic regatta upcoming in 2024 needed to be run next month, this group could pull it off. Over 100 skilled and experienced volunteers run a base that is set up well for dinghy racing. At the opening ceremony the athletes were promised a completely transformed host venue, and no doubt there will be extensive work done, but the bones of the place are fantastic, as are those that run it.

Next Up

The 2019 edition of the Junior World Championship will be in Risor, Norway in the week following Kieler Woche.The senior age sailor in 49er are about to begin the Test Event and Sailing World Series Enoshima at the 2020 Olympic venue in Japan.
Nacra 17 Top 5 – Full Results
1            ITA         Gianluigi UGOLINI, Maria GIUBILEI          6
2            AUS       Tayla RIETMAN, Lachlan WHITE              13
3            PER        Javier ARRIBAS, Adriana BARRON         22
4            GBR       Benno MARSTALLER, Chloe COLLENETTE 26
5            RUS       Olesia ZHYKOVA, Maksim SUDACHKOV 2749erFX Top 5 – Full Results – Women Only
1            SWE      Vilma BOBECK, Malin TENGSTRÖM          30
2            FIN         Ronja GRÖNBLOM, Sara EHRNROOTH    43
3            NED       Willemijn OFFERMAN, Judith ENGBERTS  51
4            POL        Aleksandra MELZACKA, Kinga LOBODA   52
5            DEN        Johanne SCHMIDT, Andrea SCHMIDT        5649er Top 5 – Full Results
1            IRL         Robert DICKSON, Seán WADDILOVE        32
2            GER       Max Stingle, Linov Scheel                           39
3            DEN      Daniel Nyborg, Sebastian Olsen                  39
4            NED       Bart LAMBRIEX, Scipio HOUTMAN            42
5            NOR      Tomas MATHISEN, Mads MATHISEN         4549erFX Top 5 – Full Results – Open
1            AUT       Keanu PRETTNER, Niklas HABER              20
2            SWE      Vilma BOBECK, Malin TENGSTRÖM           30
3            POR        Tomás BARRETO, João PRIETO                39
4            FIN         Ronja GRÖNBLOM, Sara EHRNROOTH     43
5            NED       Willemijn OFFERMAN, Judith ENGBERTS   51
Who’s your sailing hero?

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