The home crew has made the start the organisers and the crowd hoped for. After four flights on the opening day of the FISU World University Championship Sailing, Croatia sits at the top of the standings.
Roko Stipanović on the helm, Antonio Lukšić on trim, Nika Manestar as tactician and Andrea Jurić on bow handled four flights in the Melges 24 against a fleet of 15 nations and 40 universities.
Flight by flight
Flight 1: Croatia won the opening flight and took an early lead with a clean start and first place. Norway was second and Australia third, followed by Poland and Singapore. Malaysia was last.
Flight 2: Norway won and Poland was second, with Spain third and Australia fourth. Croatia dropped to 8th in a tight fleet, their worst result of the day. Italy was fifth and Singapore sixth.
Flight 3: Norway won again, with Spain second and Australia third. Croatia recovered to 5th, and Canada was sixth.
Flight 4: Croatia finished the day by winning the last flight, ahead of Spain and Norway. Australia was fourth and Austria fifth. Poland dropped to 10th.
Overall standings after Day 1
Croatia, Spain and Norway are level on 8 points at the top, with only the tiebreak separating them. Australia, Austria and Canada follow on 9, so the top six are within a single point of each other. Germany and Italy are on 10, and Singapore and Poland on 11, which means the first ten boats are separated by just three points.
Japan is 11th on 15, followed by Hungary on 16 and Czechia on 18. Malaysia and Korea close the table with 19 each.
The gap between 10th and 11th is four points, so the fleet has already split into a tight leading group and a chasing group.
A lead after day 1 counts for something, but it does not decide the championship. Racing continues today, and the Croatian crew now has to defend its lead at home against the whole fleet.
3 Oct
