Silver Cup is coming!!!
Finn Junior World Championship
Moscow, 18-27 August
Next week in Moscow the Junior Finn World Championship – for the Jorg Bruder Silver Cup – will take place on the lakes of Moscow. To date some 54 young Finn sailors from 20 nations have entered making this the largest fleet ever seen at a junior Finn championship. This massive entry is a clear indication of the growing numbers young sailors taking up the Finn across the world and is also a full justification of the generous invitation and hospitality of the Russian hosts, the Moscow Sailing School.
The adage 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' could be aptly applied to the Moscow Sailing School. In 2003 it announced ambitious plans to run the 2005 Finn Gold Cup on Moscow's lakes and to ensure its success bought in 100 brand new Finns complete with masts and sails for the sailors to use. That championship was a resounding success and since then the MSS have put those same Finns to good use supporting local sailors and generally building Finn racing in Moscow. As a result, the Finn class in Moscow has been revitalised and it now organises a series of ever more popular Finn regattas throughout the year. One of MSS's sailors, Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) even used one of these boats to win the Finn European Championships on Lake Balaton earlier this year.
Silver Cup
But now it is the turn of the juniors. In running a second major championship, MSS initially offered 40 of the boats to junior sailors to use free of charge. However, the demand was so great it raised this number to 60 to accommodate all the sailors interested in attending. In some countries, such as Denmark for example, there were so many juniors eager to sail in Moscow that the class had to organise trials to select their sailors.
Moscow Sailing School is located about 15 miles north of Moscow on the shores of Klyazminskoe Lake. It is an impressive modern campus with all the necessary facilities and space to run a large championship. In addition to the 60 Finns, MSS are also providing 10 coach boats and the sailors are being accommodated in the grounds of the MSS.
It is very hard to predict favourites from such an untested field of sailors, although there are a few names who have been proving themselves on the senior circuit in the past year. The medalists from the Junior Europeans are all competing. Michal Strusinski (POL) took that title from Frederico Melo (POR) and Piotr Kula (POL) in a tight series on Lake Balaton earlier this year, so it will be interesting to see how these three perform in what will probably be similar conditions.
As would be expected there is a strong eastern European presence, with the host nation fielding the largest entry. Many eastern European countries are starting to build Finn fleets and it is very encouraging to see strong teams from Ukraine, Belarus and the Czech Republic, as well as sailors from Serbia, Lithuania, Estonia and Romania.
A clinic is also being organized by the International Finn Association and Gus Miller (USA) at no cost for the participants. Miller will be using the innovative on-board cameras that were used in the medal race of the Finn Gold Cup in Cascais to record and explain some of the finer points of Finn sailing to the assembled juniors.
This year will be the first time ever that the Finn Junior World Championships will be sailed as an independent event. It was established in 1999 at the Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne and since then has formed part of the main senior event. However growing numbers of juniors and the restrictions imposed for the ISAF Sailing World Championships made 2007 the ideal year to have a separate event.
The first race of the 2007 Finn Junior World Championship is on Monday 20th August and if the hospitality of the Russians is half of what it was in 2005, these up and coming Finn sailors are in for a great time.
About the event
The 2007 Junior Finn World Championship will be sailed from the Moscow Sailing School from 18-26 August. Nine races are scheduled between 20-26 August. The Jorg Bruder Silver Cup was presented to the International Finn Association by Brazilian Olympic Committee in 2004 on the occasion of the Finn Gold Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a memorial to the late great Finn sailor from Brazil, who won the Finn Gold Cup three years running between 1970 and 1972.
© 2007, Robert Deaves, IFA
Class website: www.finnclass.org
Event website: http://silvercup.moscow-finnclass.ru
Moscow Finn Association: www.moscow-finnclass.ru
Pre-entry list
Sail No. Skipper
SWE 6 Bjorn Allansson
UKR 1 Efremov Ilia
UKR 5 Gusenko Andriy
UKR 13 Kulik Artem
UKR 13 Kulik Arte
UKR 7 Sadchikov Anton
USA 1038 James Reynolds
USA 31 Josh Revkin
SRB 89 Mario Stavrov
BLR 4 Bich Maksim
BLR 3 Drazdouski Yauhen
BLR 2 Lashuk Kanstantsin
BLR 1 Strakh Ilya
CAN 7 Adam Nicholson
CAN 1 John Romanko
CAN 220 Will Cowan
CRO 11 Josip Olujic
CZE 221 Daniel Vinkl
CZE 21 Jan Cajcik
CZE 55 Milan Hrncal
CZE 81 Tomas Hrncal
CZE 52 Tomas Vika
DEN 111 Kaspar Thue Andresen
DEN 22 Soren Svare
EST 8 Aare Taveter
EST3 Heiko Eesalu
GBR 99 Henry Bagnall
GER 71 Anian Schreiber
GER 771 Jan Kurfeld
GER 717 Sebastian Kaule
GRE 2 Gnafkis Eirinaios
HUN 24 Egon Payr
HUN 3 Gabor Buki
HUN 8 Marton Beliczay
ITA 4200 Federico Laici
ITA 40 Marko Kolic
ITA 71 Podesta Lorenzo
ITA 3597 Recchi Carlo
LTU 7 Vaidas Balciunas
NED 764 Maurits Boot
POL 41 Czarkowski Grzegorz
POL 71 Flak Bartosz
POL 9 Komicki Toamsz
POL 17 Piotr Kula
POL 1 Strusinski Michal
POR 5 Frederico Melo
ROM 88 Denisiuc Alexandr
RUS 8 Aleksey Selivanov
RUS 1 Besputin Konstantin
RUS 7 Chernikov Nikolay
RUS 16 Izmestiev Ivan
RUS 777 Komissarov Sergey
RUS 496 Laktionov Nikolay
RUS 49 Larionov Egor
RUS 77 Shcherbakov Andrey
RUS 171 Shcherbakov Sergey
RUS 20 Sivenkov Viatcheslav
