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Buzianis
Takes It!
Saturday August 9, 2003
Micah Buzianis (Mistral, North) has won
the Windsurfing Era PWA Formula Racing
World Cup after a thrilling day of race
action here in Leba, Poland. With winds
blowing between 13-17 knots American race
specialist Buzianis pulled out all the
stops today finishing with a first, fifth,
second and sixth. Polish racer Wojtek
Brzozowski (Starboard, Neil Pryde) also
reveled in the strong winds conditions and
moved up the leader board into second
overall with Kevin Pritchard (Gaastra,
Starboard) of the US taking the final
podium slot. In the women’s racing
Dorota Staszewska (Gaastra, Starboard)
consolidated here position at the top with
three more race victories. Verena Fauster
of Italy (Gaastra, Starboard) sailed
brilliantly today with a third, first and
two second place finishes and leapfrogged
over Karin Jaggi (F2, Arrows) to take
second place overall.
After four light wind races on the opening
two days of the event today’s stronger
winds provided the perfect finish to what
has been a superb racing event here in
Poland. The change in conditions caused
some major upsets in the results with many
of yesterdays leaders, slipping down the
pack whilst other races made huge advances.
Today’s courses were set close the beach
with two gibe marks right in front of the
crowds on the home straight.
In the opening race Micah Buzianis and
Antoine Albeau (Neil Pryde, AHD) were
first to the upwind mark and as they
rounded second to last buoy they were neck
and neck locked in a high-speed battle.
The two big guns then stormed towards the
last mark at blistering speed. As Buzianis
pulled out of his gibe Albeau tried to cut
inside taking them both down in the
process. With both sailors in the water
Polish hero Wojtek Brzozowski stormed past
them both and took the opening race win.
Albeau was later disqualified from the
race following a protest from Buzianis.
Micah Buzianis (Mistral, North)
I gibed at the mark and I was going on the
new tack and he came down from upwind with
a lot of speed. He tried to go inside and
there just wasn’t enough room. He kind
of went into me and took us both out. That’s
racing! I don’t have any hard feelings.
He had to go for it as he had some bad
results.
Antoine Albeau then hit back in race
number two and stormed to the upwind mark
clear of the chasing pack. The French all
rounder proceeded to take his first event
bullet ahead of Brzozowski, Sam Ireland
(Neil Pryde, Starboard) and Kevin
Pritchard (Gaastra, Starboard).
In race three Brzozowski took his first
victory here in Leba much to the delight
of the thousands of Polish spectators
lining the beach. Buzianis was hot on his
heals in second with Sam Ireland once
again sailing with excellent speed and
taking third slot.
With only one race remaining the tension
on the beach was at boiling point.
Yesterdays race leaders Andrea Cucchi and
Devon Boulon had failed to produce the
goods today meaning the battle for first
was between Buzianis, Pritchard and
Brzozowski. The surprise winner of the
last race was Finian Maynard (Neil Pryde)
of the Virgin Islands who made no secret
about being ecstatic about his only race
victory of the event. Brzozowski finished
his day in style with second place ahead
of Albeau and Phil McGain (Gaastra,
Starboard) in third and fourth. Micah
Buzianis finished the last race in 6th
which proved just enough to clinch race
victory following the two discards after
the eight races.
In today’s women’s racing Dorota
Staszewska (Gaastra, Starboard) once again
dominated the proceedings taking three
wins out of the four races. Staszewska
finished the event here in Leba with six
victories out of the eight races and her
place at the top of the leader board was
rarely threatened by the rest of the fleet.
Verena Fauster (Gaastra, Starboard) of
Italy was yet another racer who benefited
from the stronger winds and moved ahead of
Karin Jaggi (F2, Arrows) after a first,
two seconds and a third in today’s races.
Jaggi managed to hold onto the third
podium slot after finishing the event with
two sevenths a sixth and a fourth in the
last race.
The Era PWA Formula World cup closes
tonight with the official prize giving
followed by a huge beach party which will
no doubt continue through to the morning.
Next stop on the PWA word tour will be in
Sylt Germany at the end of September.
Micah Buzianis (Mistral, North)
It was an exciting day. I wasn’t really
following what the points were but I knew
I had to have some good results. It was
super close at the top and it all depended
on what everybody else did. I stuck to my
game plan and went as fast as I could. I
enjoyed it today, it was definitely better
than that light wind.
Wojtek Brzozowski (Neil Pryde, Starboard)
I had a good day today. Not an excellent
day, an excellent day would have been four
wins and to win the event but it was still
a good day!
Dorota Staszewska (Gaastra, Starboard)
I am really happy that we got some good
winds today. It made the whole race more
exciting. For the last two races I was on
my smallest sail the 8.5m I saw that a lot
of the girls were still on 9.8m and that’s
the thing about Formula, you have to learn
sometimes not to push it so much and relax
and take a smaller sail. I was nervous
this morning but after the first race I
felt pretty comfortable. I had a really
good fight with Lucy and then Verena. I am
happy, I finished with six wins and two
seconds so I cannot complain about that. I
am really happy that we have got eighteen
women here. It was nice racing, big crowds,
it was exciting! I think women’s racing
is back!
Fonte : www.pwaworldtour.com
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