Hungarians in charge at U23 Finn World Championship
Levente Rácz started to apply some pressure to the overall leader, Domonkos Németh, on the second day of the 2021 U23 Finn World Championship for the Jorg Bruder Finn Silver Cup, at Tihanyi Hajós Egylet (THE) on Lake Balaton, Hungary.
In lighter winds, Rácz took the opening race only to be scored as over the line early, and followed that up with a very close win the second race before Németh struck back to win the final race of the day. Németh continues to lead overall from Levente Rácz and his brother Bence Rácz.
Racing got underway after a long delay waiting for wind, but then three races were sailed in 6-10 knots. The top five places are now filled with Hungarian Finn sailors after six races.
Race 4 started in around 7 knots, with Levente Rácz leading all the way. He led round the top from Panagiotis Iordanou, from Cyprus, and Németh, finding the best pressure on the right. Round the bottom mark, Rácz and Németh, who was up to second, pushed out left and kept going, Rácz trying to stay on top and control the regatta leader. He did a good job and hung on to cross first from Németh with a close finish between Zsombor Majthényi, Ábel Szűcs and Iordanou.
Unfortunately, Rácz and Iordanou were scored UFD, so Németh took the win from Majthényi and Szűcs. After a penalty at the start Bence Rácz sailed a great race to climb back to fourth.
The breeze had increased slightly for Race 5 and again it was Levente Rácz showing the way. After a good start he stuck to Németh, initially heading left until they tacked at the same time, and then stayed on top until the top mark. Iordanou rounded third.
From there, there were two battles. Rácz kept it close with Németh, staying in control round the remaining three legs to win by a few boatlengths. Bence Rácz crossed in third and then there was a big gap to the rest.
Oscar flag for free pumping was raised at the top mark in Race 6, with Németh finding the front for the first time. He got a jump on the fleet half way up the first beat with a big shift and never looked back, rounding from Mikhail Yatsun, from Russia, and Zoltán Veisse, from Hungary.
Levente Rácz had a bad start but was starting to close on the leaders, and was up to fourth at the second top mark behind Németh, Bence Rácz and Yatsun. Nothing changed on the final downwind, finishing in that order.
Levente Rácz said, “I had a pretty solid day. I had two perfect starts and in the first two races I was just sailing to Doma [Németh], trying to control him on the upwinds, and in the third I had an extremely bad start but did a quite nice recovery to fourth. So I feel I sailed well, but the results don’t show that. It’s a pity about the first one.”
This is his first international Finn event. “I sailed 470 before, but of course the Finn has huge history in the Olympic classes and it’s great to see so many guys after the last year competing here. It’s a shame with what’s happened, but I am really happy so many guys showed up for the event.”
Rest of the week?
“According to the forecast we have around 9-11 knots every day so similar conditions to today. Catching Doma will be hard, but I feel very confident and competitive for the upcoming days.”
The Finn U23 World Championship in Tihany continues until Thursday 15 July.
Results after Day 2
1 HUN 80 Domonkos Németh 5
2 HUN 9 Levente Rácz 15
3 HUN 18 Bence Rácz 15
4 HUN 88 Zsombor Majthényi 23
5 HUN 42 Ábel Szűcs 25
6 ESP 888 Andres Ivan Lloret Pérez 33
7 HUN 58 Dénes Ujváry 40
8 NED 977 Sjoerd Hofland 42
9 HUN 4 Zoltán Veisse 46
10 CYP 1 Panagiotis Iordanou 47
Full results at: http://2021.finnsilvercup.org/results/
Photos by Marcell Mohácsi