Zara Davis returned to dominant form in the Swedish Championships held in Klagshamn, Sweden. She missed the 1st Belgian round due to recovery from surgery on her thumb. Eager to get back on her speed board she was really looking forward to this event.
She had extra pressure on her for this competition as it is also the second round of the ISWC European Championships which will decide the King and Queen of Euro Speedsailing. A good win here would put her back on track for the title. No pressure then.
The drive from the UK was a long one, going through six different countries and just over a thousand miles. But worth it, the country is beautiful and the people very friendly. Made even better by fantastic warm sunshine, the only thing missing was wind!
The site has a reputation for developing thermal winds and doubling what is forecast but not this week. The organisers tried everything to get a round in sending the fleet out on the slightest breeze and even moving the whole event 30 km to get a heat in.
It was left till almost the last day till one round was possible and it was marginal! They held three heats from 6 till 9 o’clock in the evening but luckily only one counted. It proves the new rules of minimum 28 knots speed by 20% of the fleet does work.
Overnight the wind that they should have had in the day, 30 plus knots, moved a few of the riders tents around a bit and some missed sleep. But you guess it, by the morning the wind had died!
It did pick up again and they had two more counting rounds out of the four run and Zara managed three bullets in total which gave her 1st place for the event and 2nd overall on the tour with three more events to go, its all to play for.
The men’s fleet was dominated by the Swedes, led by Marcus Richardson and the top four places were taken by the locals using their knowledge of the site to full advantage. The only real threat to their dominance came from Jersey man Martyn Ogier who finished a creditable fifth place.
With David Garrel winner of the 1st round missing and Martyn on his first event of the season. The battle for top spot on the tour was down to the German and Belgian No1’s, Thorsten Mallon and Patrick Van Hoof who were close on points going into this event. Come the end of the week both finishing on equal 20 points in joint 6th place respectively it couldn’t have been closer. It came down to who achieved the fastest speed run and that was Thorsten by less than half a knot!!!
This means Thorsten is the tour leader followed by Patrick and David Garrel in third in the men’s fleet. Nicky Van Hoof leading the ladies with Zara now hot on her heals and the dark horse Maria Johanson from Sweden, an Swedish slalom sailor in third after coming second in Sweden.