From Sailing Aarhus
Janne Järvinen and the former Danish Olympic Bronze medalist Allan Nørregaard can call themselves new Nordic F18 Champions after superior victory in Aarhus, where International Boating Center impressed with its strong volunteer forces, sovereign facilities and a distinguished sporting setup on the water.
“Great City, Great Center and Great Sailing – What’s not to like. I just love it here”, these are the words from a German F18 sailor, who thanked organizers for one successful F18 Nordic Championship in Aarhus, summarizing pretty well the weekend, where 17 teams from four nations competed at Aarhus Bay.
The winners are the experienced Danish-Finnish duo Allan Nørregaard and Janne Järvinen, who gained six bullets in eleven races, and ended ten net points in front of Swedish pair Frederik Karlsson and Rasmus Rosengren on the second place, and another seven points down to Jacob and Oscar Lundqvist on the Bronze Pad. Best Pure Danish boat was Daniel and Nicolaj Bjørnholt at fourth place. Get complete results here.
Nacra 17 trainer and Nordic Champion
Allan Nørregaard, which is remembered by Danish sailing fans for its distinguished bronze medal with Peter Lang in the 49er at the 2012 Olypic Games, entered the event in Aarhus under the Finnish flag, but it is not so mysterious even.
“I am part of a Finnish project, where in the past five years I have been employed as Nacra 17 coach to help Finnish sailors for the Olympics in Tokyo earlier this year. Then I have little sailed F18 and F69 for fun, together with Janne“, says Allan Nørregaard.
“We started sailing F18 Worlds without much training, but ended round 6s. We have some experience from the Nacra, which can be transferred to F18 and F69, which helps us. The plan is to continue in F18 and participate in Worlds in Florida next year, with a little more training, so I think that we can interfere in medal stride”, added Nørregaard, who, moreover, appreciated the event in Aarhus, especially the good volunteers people.
The F18 Presidents would like a return to Aarhus
“The weekend in Aarhus offered something close to optimal sailing conditions, giving lots of great sailing for the participants on the water. In addition, Aarhus International Boating Center offered a framework for social activities after the race, so Aarhus impressed us on both water and on land”, commented Lars Linder, chairman of the Swedish F18 class.
“The whole event was super-good, and all the Swedish sailors were deeply impressed with Sailing Aarhus and its boating center, which we envy in Sweden. Everything was perfect and we very much like to come back”, continued Lars Linder, who added that it was great to be ‘started’ again after two years of Coronapause.
The same positive experience is shared by the Danish F18 class chairman, Jan Jensen, who also shares roses out to the volunteer forces in connection with the settlement of NM:
“It was a super organisation where it’s worth emphasizing the management on the water. All the volunteers have made a great effort, and without them, a championship like this would not become anything. The people were quick to correct the courses according to conditions, and basically there was really a track of everything. A truly well-balanced combination that we would like to see repeated in Aarhus in the future”, concluded Jan Jensen.
