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15 June 2010, 03:53 pm

A Fortnight of Optimism

Optimist Continental Championships

©International Optimist Dinghy Association

2010 Optimist Continental Championships

The fortnight beginning 28 June will see well over 500 sailors from around 75 countries participating in three of the six Optimist continental championships.

The IODA North Americans start racing on 28 June in Kingston, Canada with 202 entries, closely followed by the Europeans in Kamien-Pomorski, Poland with at least 240 sailors and the Asians in Pattaya, Thailand with 100 sailors registered.

In the nine years since the event was last in Canada, Optimist sailing in the Caribbean has exploded and this is reflected by the presence of eight Caribbean countries entered in 2010 when in 2001 only the U.S. Virgin Islands attended.

43 countries, 37 of them European, are entered for the IODA European Championship in northern Poland. Not surprisingly the venue has attracted entries from all the Baltic republics and Belarus, but the real newcomers are Albania who only joined the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) this year.

13 Asian countries plus seven, including Papua New Guinea, from elsewhere, are expected at the Royal Varuna Y.C. in Pattaya.

For more details visit: www.optiworld.org

Sally Burnett (International Optimist Dinghy Association)

World Sailing TV

Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.