The Russian contingent made up of 18 sailors and under the guidance of two coaches, Sergey Semanov, from the Rautu Sailing Team, of St Petersburg, and Ekaterina Maximova, from the SC Paruskin, also of St Petersburg, were the first to arrive for the 11th Euromed Malta Championship which officially starts today.
In fact, the Russian youngsters were on the water on Monday morning, less than 24-hours from their arrival, joining other sailors in their last training sessions before the big event.
This year’s championship will see 93 Optimist sailors, of whom 27 Maltese, the best entries overall and also as locals for the Euromed since the very beginning.
Sicily provides the biggest Optimists’ contingent this year with 39 U-16 sailors, Israel has seven and the United Kingdom four.
As in previous years, besides the Optimist, racing will also be held for Laser 4.7, Laser Radial and Laser Standard.
In the Optimist class, the fleet will be divided into the Junior Cadet Class and the Open Class.
The Lasers Class regatta, to be contested by 25 participants, is reserved for over 16-year-olds and will be made up of Russian, Italian, English and Maltese sailors.
The racing contingents are assembled at the Riu Seabank, in Mellieħa, the championship’s official hotel. Registration formalities will be completed today with the first two of the nine-race programme scheduled for tomorrow.
The remaining seven races are planned for Sunday (three), Monday (three) with the final race listed for Tuesday morning.
Mellieħa Bay presents the racing arena while the Riu Seabank’s facilities will present the necessary services for sailors and race officials alike throughout the five-day event.
It is an undisputed reality that the Euromed Championship is being instrumental to give the Maltese a mixture of sailing knowledge and skills as well as many enjoyable memories to take with them for life.
Nicola Manduca and Matthew Westwood will remember this year’s edition for it will be their last in Optimist, since they have now reached the age limit.
Yet, the Euromed not only gives the Maltese, maybe, their first taste of international racing, but also imbues in them a passion for the sport as can be seen from some young sailors who now crew on boats for the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
This year, the likes of Jan Rossi and Peter Valentino Jr were part of the Artie crew in the MSR while Sebastian Ripard, Tom Ripard, Luke Scicluna, James Staniland, and Daniel and Mark Calascione were on board Jaru.
Thomas Zammit Tabona made his maiden MSR this year when he crewed on Elusive.
Other ex-Optimist sailors who are also setting high ambitions are Benji Borg and Sebastian Ripard.
The two are vying to qualify for the 49er Class at the 2012 Olympics. This passionate aspiration is also embraced by Maya Podesta who targets the same London Games but in Laser Radial.
Maltese sailors have won four of the past ten Euromeds with the Swedes winning two titles and one victory each going to an Irish, a Turk, an Italian and a Russian.
Zammit Tabona is the only sailor to win the Euromed twice, 2006 and 2007, while 11-year-old Russian Nikita Ushkov was the youngest of all past ten winners.
An international jury, comprised of Babette Delhart (France), Tullio Giraldi (Italy), Trevor Lewis (UK), Jovin Rausi and Godwin Zammit (both Malta), under the chairmanship of Peter Valentino and assisted by the Malta Sailing Federation president Anna Rossi, will run the technical and logistic aspect of the championship.
Peter Dimech will be the Principle Race Officer.
The championship is organised by the Malta Young Sailors Club in partnership with the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport and the Mellieħa Local Council. The Euromed is held under the auspices of the Malta Sailing Federation.