2015 Russian Dragon Open Championship 2015 in St. Petersburg is over. Here is medal count for the Championship : the gold winner is Dmitry Samokhin (RUS 76), the silver prize winner of the recently held World Dragon Championship; silver was taken by the crew of Anatoly Loginov (RUS 27), the winner of the Dragon Gold Cup, Igor Skalin (RUS 47), silver prize winner of 1996 Summer Oympics, bagged the bronze medal.
Sun and flagging west wind, died down to 6 knots – these were the conditions for the finals at the Championship. Both flights planned took place under the numbers: flight No.6 and flight No.7.
The last day of the Championship surprised everybody with an unexpected visitor – Phoca vitulina largha, a harbor Baltic spotted seal, in general seldom met in the coastal waters, but it appeared very close to the city of St.Petersburg to be a surprise for everybody.
19 crews were doing their best to win the victory in the following events: “Overall classification”, “Offset of the Russian Federation” and “Dragon Classic”. Results of the first two offsets were the same. The first place in “Dragon Classic” was won by the team of Victor Los (RUS 22) who celebrated his Birthday on this day, the second place was won by Gleb Suloyev (RUS 11), the third – went to Boris Habarov (RUS 85).
At the official prize-giving ceremony Vasily Senatorov, President of Russian Dragon Association and Vice President of the International Dragon Association noted that the Championship was filled with superiority drive. The intrigue concerning gold, silver and bronze medals has been kept up to the finishing line of the last flight. Vasily Senatorov said: “I’d like to say the words of gratitude to the Organizing Committee, Race Officials, Media Staff, Volunteers, Sponsors, Partners and without any hesitation to Tatiana Kurbatova, Event Director, for such a high level the Russian Dragon Open Championship has been organized and conducted. My special thanks to Viktor Los and St.Petersburg Yacht Club for the opportunity to conduct the competitions here for the 6th time. Without any doubt we can say that that the Northern Capital, the city of St.Petersburg has become the center of the club life for Russian Dragon”. It was added by Vasily Senatorov that on one of the days during the Championship a very special and important meeting for the owners of Dragon Yachts was held. A number of serious and important decisions were adopted at this meeting aimed at the future development of the Dragon Class in Russia: Association membership, organizational matters relative to the European Dragon Championship which will be held in July 2016, in St.Petersburg and some other questions under consideration.
Dmitry Samokhin:
The Championship turned out to be tense and competitive. Races took place under different wind conditions, it was necessary to show good speed in any conditions. Boats were not numerous in number therefore each point was very important. It put serious pressure on the course of each race. Fight for the first place went on all the way during the second maneuvering. The more pleasant is the victory to win. I want to thank once again all the competitors for the excellent battle.
Anatoly Loginov:
Well, the intrigue as we see has been kept till the very last moment. The last two flights appeared to be the most fascinating. Of course, there were some mistakes made, the ones that are to be considered, discussed, analyzed and be worked off. Definitely, we do have something to work out. A very tense calendar schedule is waiting for us and I don’t doubt that our team has got a wonderful new experience.
Igor Skalin:
We have been participating in the Russian Championships quite a lot. I used to sail a Dragon Class Yach since autumn, 2006. Before that I sailed the Flying Dutchman, Zodiak and many other boats. In spite of my great experience, participation in the Russian Dragon Open is not an easy one. We could not win the victory, but we are happy to win the third place! The last racing day appeared to be a rather nervous one. Both of the flights were unbelievably tense for us, we did not have any time even for a short rest. That is why the third place on the podium is worth getting, we are glad!
2015 Russian Dragon Open Championship Winners:
Sailing Series Total
1. Dmitry Samokhin, Alexey Bushuev, Andrey Kiriluk (RUS 76) – 17 points
2. Anatoly Loginov, Vadim Statsenko, Alexandr Shalagin (RUS 27) – 20 points
3. Igor Skalin, Alexandr Andrianov, Sergey Brilev (RUS 47) – 22 points
Sailing Series Class
1. Viktor Los, Denis Karelsky, Dmitry Arseniev (RUS 22) – 67 points
2. Gleb Suloev, Alexey Totin, Sergey Dalnev (RUS 11) – 72 points
3. Boris Habarov, Denis Bikov, Elena Habarova (RUS 7) – 85 points
Official results and the photos of the forth day at www.dragonopen.ru
