470 European Championships 2009
Croatian sailors Šime Fantela and Igor Marenić won the men’s 470 class at the European championships at Traunsee Lake, Upper Austria on Sunday 14th of June.
Fantela and Marenić are members of Sv. Krševan Club (Zadar, Croatia) and are the first Croatian gold-medal winners in an Olympic class in more than 30 years.
A Croatian crew had not before won a medal in the European or World championship 470 class.
The two men from Croatia are the youngest of top five ranked 470 men’s crews. Šime started sailing at the age of six and Igor three years later.
They had their Olympic debut in the 2008 Olympic sailing competition, where they finished 9th achieving the best ever Olympic result for Croatia in this class. As stars of the youth scene, they had won the 470 class Junior World title in 2005 and 2007, and with the European’s title of 2009, the two 23 year olds have scored their first major success on the senior circuit.
“This is the most excellent feeling we’ve had so far in sailing,” Fantela said. “It’s our first major victory. It was extremely difficult this week, but the Race Committee did a fantastic job under this hard conditions. It is far easier for us to sail on the sea. Here on the Traunsee you need a good eye for wind shifts and a lot of routine. We gave our maximum every day and every race. This result is a confirmation for us and our trainers that we are all going in the right direction.”
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