The Hungarians Szalbolcs Majthenyi and Andras Domokos were proclaimed European Flying Dutchman champions this Saturday in the waters of the Bay of Cádiz, after a final day in which two events were held that closed the championship with a total of seven. The Hungarians finish as they started since they were the ones in charge of opening the scoring with the victory in the first test. Afterwards there have been days of a lot of good, healthy fighting for a title that has been in question until the last stretch. The new European champions have three 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 5th, with the exclusion of a 6th, and they achieve what they came to Puerto Sherry for after competing at the highest physical and mental level, necessary to endure the pressure that has been experienced among the title contenders.
After a week and seven tests, the European championship has not been decided until the last one, which has brought together more than sixty crews from a dozen countries in the waters of the Bay of Cádiz. After the sixth test, none of the podium positions were closed, as there was a double tie between the first two, and the third and fourth. The outcome was impressive and any of them deserved a title that ended up in the hands of the Hungarians thanks to their victory in the last test, followed by the current world champions, the Germans Kay-Uwe Ludtke and Kai Schafers, fighting until the end. final with a second in the last round.
The doubt for third place was cleared with a third from the Germans Kilian Koenig and Johannes Brack compared to a fourth from the Italians Nicola and Francesco Vespasiani, and in the top5 the Dutch Enno Kramer and Ard Geelkerken remain with the same score in the closure test. The last push of the ‘Roche Rudder’ by Fran Martínez and Pepe Ruiz from Cádiz has been impressive, as they classified sixth with a 4th place in test six and 8th in the final. That of the tandem of Torrevieja and Cádiz has been a week of comeback from thirteenth place in which they started, later rising to tenth, ninth and finally sixth, which they sign to confirm their power in the class.
The last two tests have been marked by westerly winds of between 12 and 18 knots of intensity that have kept the fleet busy for approximately three hours. Once on land and regained strength, the trophy presentation was held at the CN Puerto Sherry facilities on the asphalt beach of the marina, in an event that was attended by the president of the club, Valle de la Riva, along with Kiko Sánchez Prieto and Lucas Alcón, manager and technical director, respectively; Meike Greten and Hans-Peter Schwarz, general secretary and vice president of competitions of the Flying Dutchman International Class, respectively; Enrique Egea, national secretary of the class in Spain, and the Sports Councilor of the El Puerto de Santa María City Council and Andalusian parliamentarian, Ignacio González Nieto.
The championship that ends today marks the beginning of the World Race Flying Dutchman 2024/25, a global event that will run until April 2025, with a series of regattas that will culminate with the Spanish Cup and the World Championship of the class in next spring. This has been the first European since the one held in 2019 in Hungary, since the class organizes the world championship two consecutive years in Europe and the following year in America or Oceania and the pandemic forced it to reorganize calendars. Yes, the organization of the Euroflying Cup is an annual event, a European circuit that begins in Spain and passes through Italy, Croatia, Austria and Germany during the week of Kiel. In Spain, Altea has been in charge of opening the circuit for 20 years, but in 2025 the departure port will be Puerto Sherry.
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