MADRID, November 16. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The boats from Malaysia, Tahiti, Croatia and Lithuania led their respective groups this Thursday in the round of 16 of the Gran Canaria SSL Gold Cup, the Sailing World Cup which takes place in a format of six elimination phases, similar to that of a football competition. World Cup.

The action returned to the bay of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for the first day of this round of 32 action. And this, moreover, in perfect conditions which allowed the Regatta Committee to respect the planned program of a race for each of the four groups.

Around 11 a.m. local time, and with eight knots of wind, the first to hear the start horn were Chile, Malaysia, Estonia and Austria. The Austrians, under Olympic medalist Thomas Zajac, started strong and were battling for the lead with Megat Danial Najmuddin’s Malaysian team, but a lack of training and two bad moves put them away from the lead.

For its part, Malaysia did not fail and won a large partial victory with almost a minute and a half ahead of the Chilean ship of Pablo Lorca, second. Behind them, the Estonian crew of Tõnu Tõniste and the Austrian team close the group, third and fourth respectively within Group 1.

Bermuda, Tahiti, Finland and Hungary are the components of Group 2. Two of them, Finland of Thomas Johanson and Hungary of Zsombor Berecz, joined the competition during this round and the other two, Bermuda and Tahiti, earned their place in the thirty-second round. .final and this Thursday, they once again put in a great performance.

The Bermuda team, led by Rockal Evans, quickly took the lead of the fleet and dominated the first two sections of the course. But the Tahitians of Teva Plichart, who closed the previous phase undefeated, came out to the water ready not to give in to their new group rivals.

In the second lap of the windward course, Tahiti had already managed to position itself in the lead and held on until crossing the finish line in first position ahead of Bermuda, Finland and Hungary.

In Group 3, the spotlight was on Croatia, who were making their debut in the competition. With a powerful team led by the award-winning Sime Fantela, the Croatians did not disappoint and showed their potential from the first minute. The boat from Portugal, owned by João Rodrigues, and that from Antigua and Barbuda, owned by Shannon Falcone, did not succeed in their strategy and started the race far behind Croatia and South Africa .

Fantela’s crew dominated from the start and took the first mark with an advantage over Ian Ainslie’s South African team. In general, all the teams remained separated and Croatia had no problem maintaining first place until the end ahead of South Africa, who crossed the finish line two minutes later; Portugal finished third and Antigua and Barbuda finished fourth.

The last to compete were Lithuania, Slovenia and two teams who also made their debut in the competition this Thursday: Canada and Japan. Unlike what happened in other groups, this time the lack of sailing hours did not affect the Japanese and Canadians of Group 4, led respectively by Eiichirou Hamazaki and Robert Hemming.

Both ships still fought for partial victory and even played a leading role in a head-to-head battle for the lead, until Lithuania gave a vital acceleration in the second heat and took the lead of the fleet . Gintare Volungeviciute’s team ultimately emerged victorious in this first round ahead of Canada, Japan and Slovenia.