Considering the premiere performance of the Croatia Match Racing Team at this competition, this is a fantastic result
The last day of the first Croatia Match Cup Poreč 2017 regatta, part of the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) was exciting from the early morning. The sailors left Peškera around 10 in the morning to make up for Saturday’s backlog of Round-robin 2, races which were not held due to wind losing strength in the afternoon. The plan was to sail the remaining matches from sequence numbers 28 to 45, but the wind again foiled everyone’s plans. The Croatia Match Racing Team were in the lead with 6 wins and 1 defeat, but the qualifications were then aborted due to lack of time and the four best crews were calculated mathematically.
Thus placing in the semi-finals were Croatia Match Racing Team composed of Šime Fantela, Igor Marenić, Rajko Kujundžić and Mihovil Fantela, the French crew of Quentin Delapierre, Dane Joachim Aschenbrenner and Dutch Pieter-Jan Postma. To make it to the finals, the crews had to be the first to reach two victories in mutual duels. The Croatian team started great against the Danish and took victory in probably their best sailing in Poreč. However, in the next duel with the French, they lost the race, so they had to sail against them again since both teams were equal with one victory each. In their second duel, on approach to the starting line, the French closed the approach of the Croatian team, who had to turn into the wind in order not to cross the start. Through this, their favourable starting position was lost, while the French raced ahead and created a huge advantage.
In the first sailing of the finals, Delapierre celebrated again against Dutchman Postma. Then came the knock-out race for third place (one start decided the winner) between the Croatian team of Šime Fantela and ART Sailing of Joachim Aschenbrenner which ended in victory for the Danes. The Croats started in a better position, but as they crossed the starting line too soon they were penalised and had to slow down and yield to the Danish catamaran. Fantela’s crew had an excellent sail after that, but it was hard to regain the lost time.
Croatian skipper Šime Fantela did not hide his pleasure with the premiere performance of his crew at the WMRT regatta: “I am very proud of us, we held like heroes, absolutely dominating this day. The only thing missing is more regattas in this class. We plan to continue sailing in M32, certainly.”
In the second duel of the finals Postma evened the score, so a third sailing was held which saw Delapierre as the victor. Both crews thus placed in the WMRT regatta to be held in September in the United States of America, which was their goal.
The winner Delapierre stated before climbing to the pedestal: “Today in the finals we sailed twice against Fantela and it was very difficult. In the end, we defeated the Croats 2:1 and then the Dutch in the finals. I really enjoyed this regatta, especially the view of the old heart of Poreč. For us, this victory is extremely important, as we qualified for the next regatta, which is why we came to Croatia.”
Considering the premiere performance of the Croatia Match Racing Team at this competition, this is a fantastic result, especially given the golden Olympians Šime Fantela and Igor Marenić sailed for the first time in a four-man crew, which only had six days of practice together ahead of the race. The team also sailed on Sunday without the injured Patrik Damijan, who is recovering well but needs to rest: “The shoulder is better, but doctors advised me to wait a few more days. I am sorry I was forced to miss the race I prepared months for. We trained hard, in the gym and on other sailboat classes, in Valencia we sailed together for six days on the M32, but in this sport, injuries are common and unpredictable as it is an extremely demanding discipline.”
After the winners were declared, WMRT licence owner for Croatia Vedran Sušić invited all present to come to Poreč again next year and thus announced the second edition of the Croatia Match Cup.
Founded in 1999, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the world’s leading professional sailing series. It features world class sailors and Olympic champions, with tour events staged around the globe. WMRT is officially sanctioned with ‘Special Event’ status by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), the sport’s world governing body.
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