Split in Croatia could be regarded as one of the Finn classes' favourite venues. In recent times, this picturesque Adriatic port has staged the Europeans in 1997, the World Masters in 2002 and the Finn Gold Cup in 2006
In 2010 the city will host two major Finn events. At the end of May the World Masters will return again, and next week the YC Labud will host the 2010 Finn Open Junior and Senior European Championships.
An all-time record entry of 101 sailors from 27 nations will be competing, including three former European Champions. The defending champion is Ivan
Ivan Kljakovic gaspic (CRO), though with all but one of the top 25 world ranked sailors attending it will be a tough call for him to take the title for a second year.
His main home competition comes from local sailor
Marin Misura (CRO), who with wins at the Split Olympic Week and in Hyeres last week, is bound to be brimming with confidence.
Arguably the other main favourite has to be
Ed Wright (GBR). With wins at the Rolex Miami OCR and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mapfre this year, Wright is producing better results than anyone else in the fleet and baring a major mishap should be in with a chance come the medal race on Sunday week.
In fact, any of the impressively strong Skandia Team GBR could be in the medal race.
Giles Scott (GBR), second in Miami,
Andrew Mills (GBR) and
Mark Andrews (GBR) have all won races at ISAF Grade 1 events this year and skipped Hyeres to prolong their training in Split to prepare for this event.
Other favourites to look for include:
Rafa Trujillo (ESP), 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2007 World Champion; Pieter Jan
Pieter-Jan Postma (NED);
Gasper Vincec (SLO), third in Miami this year;
Dan Slater (NZL), runner up, 2008 Finn Gold Cup;
Rafal Szukiel (POL);
Jonathan Lobert (FRA); and
Thomas Le Breton (FRA).
Both Lobert and Le Breton have been training hard together and the results are starting to pay off. Lobert won races in both Miami and Hyeres, while Le Breton took the bronze at Hyeres last week.
This event also brings the return of
Karlo Kuret (CRO), a four time Olympian in the Finn and part of the event organisation, though he has not raced a major Finn regatta since the 2004 Olympics.
Other race winning potential comes from: Eduard
Eduard Skornyakov (RUS), 2007 European Champion;
Deniss Karpak(EST), his second season and improving all the time;
Tapio Nirkko (FIN), runner up at the Europeans last year; Giorgio
Giorgio Poggi (ITA);
Peer Moberg (NOR); and
Bryan Boyd (USA). In addition there are lots of new faces and talented sailors joining the class, so there could well be a few surprises along the way as well.
In the very strong Junior fleet, the defending champion is
Ioannis Mitakis (GRE). He is also probably the favourite to take a second title after an outstanding performance in Hyeres where he placed in the top 10 for most of the week.
Measurement and registration opens Friday with the practice race on Monday 10th May. Ten races are scheduled between Tuesday and Saturday with the medal race for the top 10 and the final fleet race for the rest on Sunday 16th May.
You can follow the event on the Finn class event blog, Facebook page, Twitter and YouTube site as well as through the regular press releases.
Class blog:
http://finnclass.blogspot.com/
Class Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Finn-Class/110408332633
Class video site:
www.youtube.com/thefinnchannel
Class Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/Finn_Class
Class website:
www.finnclass.org
Event website: http://jklabud.hr/finn-europeans-2010
Club website: www.jklabud.hr/
Pre-entries (101 sailors from 27 nations)
AUT 3 Florian Raudaschl
AUT 7 Michael Gubi
BUL 24 Kopanov Mihail
BUL 855 Vangelov Dimitar
CRO 1 Arapov Mate
CRO 52 Bari? Nikola
CRO 524 Kljakovic Gaspic Ivan
CRO 7 Kuret Karlo
CRO 25 Misura Marin
CRO 88 Mrduljas Marin
CYP 19 Papadopoulos Haris
CZE 1 Deutscher Patrik
CZE 81 Hrncal Tomas
CZE 9 Hrubý Michal
CZE 3 Lidarik Rudolf
CZE 1 Maier Michael
CZE 52 Vika Tomas
DEN 46 Andresen Kaspar
ESP 836 Muscat Alejandro
ESP 100 Trujillo Rafael
EST 2 Karpak Deniss
EST 7 Liiv Harles
EST 11 Väinalu Lauri
FIN 218 Nirkko Tapio
FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert
FRA 99 Marc Allain Des Beauvais
FRA 115 Thomas Le Breton
GBR 11 Wright Edward
GBR 88 Andrews Mark
GBR 65 David Potter
GBR 68 Mackie John
GBR 85 Mills Andrew
GBR 41 Scott Giles
GER 711 Andre Budzien
GER 712 Christoph Froh
GER 165 Dirk Meid
GER 500 Fischer Philipe
GER 771 Jan Kurfeld
GER 127 Julian Massler
GER 64 Luttkus Lennart
GER 27 Matthias Wolff
GER 108 Sebastian Munck
GER 772 Ulli Kurfeld
GRE 30 Barous Nikolaos
GRE 8 Dragoutsis Alexandros
GRE 71 Davourlis Panagiotis
GRE 9 Gnafakis Konstantinos
GRE 2 Gnafakis Eirinaios
GRE 14 Katsimidis Anastsios
GRE 4 Kotsovos Panagiotis
GRE 77 Mitakis Ioannis
GRE 21 Tsotras Antonis
HUN 8 Beliczay Márton
HUN 728 Haidekker Elemer
HUN 212 Hirschler Richard
HUN 270 Huszár Géza
HUN 972 Mónus Gyula
HUN 6 Pál Gaszton
ITA 123 Baldassari Filippo
ITA 101 Cordovani Riccardo
ITA 40 Kolic Marko
ITA 985 Laici Federico
ITA 117 Poggi Giorgio
ITA 981 Voltolini Enrico
NED 842 Postma Pieter-Jan
NED 83 Timo Hagoort
NED 844 Van Der Heijden Gert
NOR 1 Moberg Peer
NZL 1 Slater Dan
POL 17 Kula Piotr
POL 1 Mal?g Maciej
POL 12 Milosz Wojewski
POL 45 Pasik Jakub
POL 7 Szukiel Rafa?
POR 5 Melo Frederico
POR 310 Rodrigo Quina
RUS 7 Alexander Novikov
RUS 41 Denikaev Felix
RUS 3 Izmestyev Ivan
RUS 17 Kravchenko Vasiliy
RUS 707 Larionov Egor
RUS 1 Selivanov Alexey
RUS 91 Sivenkov Viacheslav
RUS 9 Skornyakov Eduard
RUS 57 Terpigorev Egor
RUS 95 Udartsev Vladimir
SLO 5 Vin?ec Gašper
SLO 573 ?bogar Vasilij
SUI 63 Thomas Gautschi
SWE 11 Birgmark Daniel
SWE 6 Bjorn Allansson
SWE 721 Brandt Mikael
SWE 111 Jarnstam Torsten
SWE 33 Salminen Max
TUR 21 Kaynar Alican
TUR 35 Kuyumcu Efe
TUR 7 Muslubas Akif
UKR 1 Borysov Oleksiy
UKR 55 Chystiakov Pavlo
UKR 5 Gusenko Andriy
UKR 5 Gusenko Andriy
UKR 21 Sadchykov Anton
USA 1140 Boyd Bryan
USA 40 Luke Lawrence
USA 619 Paine Caleb
USA 60 Woolward Iain