Tornado World Championship at Nautical Club of Thessaloniki - Day 1

Greek team Iordanis Paschalidis &Petros Konstaninidis win both races on day 1 of the Tornado Worlds © Nikos Pantis

After the 'Day 0' where the practice race and the opening ceremony were held, Thursday early afternoon saw the Tornado World Championship start. 23 teams from 10 countries will compete for the world title until 5th of September.

The first day of the championships started with a skippers' meeting at 10.30 am. The first race was planned for 1pm, but the Race Committee decided to wait for the wind to come. The competitors left the club to the racing area about 2.30pm and after 3pm the first race began. Two races scheduled for the today were run according to the plan in ideal sailing conditions with wind 8-15 knots.

Both races were won by the Greek team of Iordanis Paschalidis/Petros Konstaninidis and they lead the overall standings. Nikolaos Mavros/Alexandros Tagaropoulos in each race came second, so they are second overall, Burvill/Putman are in third position and Baier/Baier fourth.

Amongst the mixed teams, the Czech team of Zdenek Pavlis/Maichaela Pavlisova are leading. During this worlds the current world champions Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis are sailing in different teams.

"We decided with Danny not to sail this year's Tornado World Championship together, giving the opportunity to two young talented sailors to get the experience of racing with us and get 'deeper' into catamaran racing. Such a great feeling and great responsibility for us to pass our knowledge to the young generation!" Kostas Trigonis explains, "It seems that our Red Bull Under My wing program works! Danny and Petros are leading after the first day and our team is in fifth position! We're still improving our sailing together in new teams, so everything can happen..."

After racing all the sailors were invited to the hosting club. The Nautical Club of Thessaloniki, for the 'Sardine party by Danny and Kostas'.