Racing in the regatta is the tactician of Luna Rosso and the Star Olympic
Champion Torben Grael, the helmsman of +39, The Englishman Ian Percy and
other Star World Champions such as the Swede Frederik Loof, the German Alex
Hagen and the Italians Roberto Benamati and Enrico Chieffi.
The number of participants is a record for a Star European Championship.
The "open" character of the regatta (it was not necessary to qualify to
race) has brought the extraordinary participation of 27 countries and
confirms the success of this class that started racing in the Olympics in
1932 and, with the single year of 1976 of non-participation, has always
been present at the Games.
For Italy, this event is valid as a selection event for the team that will
represent the country at the 2008 Olympics in China. Due to this the
Italian participants are the largest group at Malcasine with 33 boats.
After two previous races of selection of the 5 total that are planned,
clearly in command of being the Italian representative to the Olympics are
the pair from Guardia di Finanza, Diego Negri and Luigi Viale, in front of
another team from Finanza, Francesco Bruni and Gilberto Nobili. Negri and
Viale finished 5th at last year's Europeans and obtained the same result
(the best of the last decade for Italy) at the World Championship in
Portugal in July. Also racing at Malcasine are the last two Italian Star
World Champions, the local Roberto Benamati (1992) and Enrico Chieffi
(1996),
The Star class is the class in which Italy has gotten its best Olympic
results - 5 medals:
1 Gold (1952) Straulino and Rode
1 Silver (1956) Straulino and Rode
3 Bronze (1968) Cavallo and Gargano; (1980 and 1984) Gorla and Peraboni
In the history of the European Championship (first sailed in 1932), Itally
has won 15 times with Agostino Straulino holding the record or 7
consecutive wins, but the last Italian European Champion with an absolute
win in the regatta was in 1985 by Gorla/Peraboni.
Three races have been sailed to date; Wednesday is a lay day with racing
resumed on Thursday.
Top five after three races:
1. Ian Percy / Andrew Simpson, GBR, 10 points
2. Fredrik Loof / Anders Eksstrom, SWE, 22
3. Flavio Marazzi / Enrico De Marina, SUI, 23
4. Peter Bromby / Lee White, BER, 25
5. Torben Grael / Marcelo Ferreira, BRA, 29
http://www.starclass.org
