Šime Fantela and Igor Marendić are currently second with two more days of the World Sailing Championship in Haifa
With two more days left of the World Sailing Championship for Class 470 in Haifa, Croatian duo Šime Fantela and Igor Marendić are currently in second place with the same amount of points as the leading duo Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom from Sweden.
“Swedes have been in top form for a long time, just like us, they’re always in the top ten but they’ve never won a medal. They’re flying here, they’re extremely fast and maybe they’re also motivated by the return of Johan Molund on the regatta field. He’s older than us, and interestingly enough, he won his European bronze medal in Zadar in 1999 when Igor and I were still sailing in class Optimist. Molund is now their direct competition in the national qualifiers for Olympic games in Rio so maybe that is giving them an additional push ” Šime Fantela commented for HINA.
Australian duo Matthew Belcher and Will Ryan who are currently sharing third place and Russian representatives Pavel Sozikin and Denis Gribanov in fourth place are only trailing by two points so the next two days are going to be extremely interesting with no room for error for Croatian sailors if they want to come home with a gold medal; “Yes, the result is really tight, and its quite hard to sail. Wind is changing all the time, waves are short and sharp, so the conditions are not exactly to our taste, but it seems everyone else is having trouble since the results are all over the place. Everyone is hanging in there, there are many crews still with a chance for a medal. The suspense couldn’t be any higher but we’re enjoying it” Fantela added.
