Techno 293 Plus World Championships 2021, Bodrum, Turkey
The sporting summer 2021 continues and, having just said “sayonara” to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, now it’s a big “Merhaba” (hello) from Bodrum, on the south west coast of Turkey, looking out across the Aegean towards the Greek islands and eventually Greece itself. Bodrum is a historic ancient fortified port town that even boasted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Mausoleum of Mausolus.
But we’re here for one of the wonders of the modern world, windsurfing on the Techno293, and in particular, the Techno293Plus World Championships. Techno293Plus is the older cousin of the Techno293, specially designed for the U19 and Open categories. It is the board of choice for the World Sailing Youth Worlds in December this year.
Despite the ongoing travel restrictions and difficulties caused by the Covid pandemic, 41 racers from 7 different countries have made their way to Bodrum, where we’re guests of the local sailing club, Era Yelken Kulubu, and the Turkish Sailing Federation, for 5 days of competition to decide the Youth Men’s, Youth Women’s and Open division 2021 World Champions.
We’re a safe distance from the wild fires currently affecting eastern Mediterranean countries, but after the first day’s racing, conducted under clear blue skies and hot sun, the heat is on for the 24 men and 17 women hopefuls in their quest for T293Plus honours. The first day saw the men’s and women’s fleets both complete 3 rounds of racing and the early leader rankings are taking shape.
The women’s competition was dominated on day 1 by the Russian, Daria Bannaya with a clean-sweep of wins from the first 3 races. She’s followed by Spain’s Zoe Fernandez and the Greek rider Emilia Kosti, separated by a single point. It’s very tight at the top with just 7 points between the 2nd and 5th place riders.
It was a similar story in the men’s fleet, with Belarus’s Artion Javadav also winning all 3 races, giving him a comfortable lead in the Open division. Leading the Youth Men’s ranking is Italy’s Davide Antognoli ahead of his compatriot Giorgio Falquicao, with Turkish rider Ozan Turker, flying the flag for the host country.
But all that could change over the next 4 days and 12 rounds of racing still to come, with all the sailors able to discard their worst scores once the number of completed races reaches the discard threshold.
More strong wind races await as we start at 11:30 today