Italian gold and bronze at the 2024 ILCA Under 21 European Championships

In the heart of the Mediterranean, at the Real Club Nàutic Port de Pollença in Mallorca, Spain, the 2024 ILCA Under 21 European Championships took place. This year, the competition featured 201 sailors from 35 nations, including strong European representation with 28 countries competing. With 136 competitors in ILCA 7 and 65 in ILCA 6, Spain and Italy led the largest fleets, each boasting 30 athletes at the start.

The championship, which officially began on March 18th after the opening ceremony, concluded today with a program that involved ten regattas for both categories, testing the resistance, tactics and technique of the young sailors, especially for the conditions of wind absolutely prohibitive due to the low intensity.

ILCA 7: victory for Enrico Tanferna

In the ILCA 7 class, Italy shone thanks to the victory of Enrico Tanferna. The young athlete has shown consistency, winning the European Under 21 title yesterday overtaking the German Schweckendiek (U19 and U21 ILCA 7 world champion in 2022) who finished second; and controlling the third in the standings, the Israeli Pulici Magen. Today's race kept everyone in suspense until the end, the Italian and the German were separated by only two points, but finishing in fifth and fourth place crystallized yesterday's ranking.

In the first twenty places there are five Italians: 1st Enrico Tanferna (Yacht Club Olbia), 7th Mattia Cesana (Fraglia Vela Riva), 13th Matteo Bertacchi (CV Bellano), 16th Massimiliano Antoniazzi (Yacht Club Adriaco), 20 ° Anatol Sassi (Rome Sailing Club).

These are the words of Technical Director Michele Marchesini: “A particular Championship marked by particular weather conditions, which highlighted the technical and tactical skills of the athletes. I am very satisfied with the title won by Tanferna which, precisely because of her physical structure, denotes the athlete's ability to adapt to these conditions. Mattivi has had an excellent season and continues to give consistency to his results. The podium in these championships was not a given and he was able to interpret a week that was always at the top of the rankings. Also on this occasion we confirmed great team depth, finishing with five males and five females in the top twenty places. The growth trend of our nursery at Olympic class level is confirmed. As I have already underlined, the turning point came at the end of 2021, after the Olympics, when with President Ettorre I launched the new Development and Under program of the Olympic Preparation sector. This structure is working very effectively and is constantly being refined: the succession of results proves it. The foundations are being laid for the 2028 and 2032 Olympic cycles."

ILCA 6: Emma Mattivi on the third step of the podium

In the ILCA 6 women's field, another Italian medal arrived: Emma Mattivi who came third. The Italian athlete was defending the European U21 title and was able to navigate the weather conditions which were certainly complex and at the limit of the possibility of racing. It's a shame for you about the last test held today which saw you slip to third place after having defended second place for many tests. The final ranking sees the Polish Niezabitowska first, the Spanish Adan Lledo second and Emma Mattivi third.

In the top twenty positions also in this case there are five Italians in the ranking: 3rd Emma Mattivi (Fraglia Vela Riva), 6th Alice Ruperto (CV Crotone), 7th Ginevra Caracciolo (LNI Napoli), 12th Maria Vittoria Arseni (Tognazzi Marine Village), 17th Giorgia Bonalana (Fraglia Vela Riva).

The voice of the protagonists:

Enrico Tanferna: “The championship has just ended, and it was a truly remarkable challenge, given the presence of weather conditions that were not exactly ideal for my preferences; I usually prefer strong wind conditions. Despite this, I managed to adapt well and achieve a very positive result. I remember that last year we had already achieved excellent results, my two teammates and I had ranked first, second and third respectively, and I had achieved third. This year, winning for the second consecutive year as Italy was an extraordinarily rewarding and beautiful experience for me and for the whole team.”

Emma Mattivi: “It was a very difficult championship, every day we had fluctuating and very gusty wind conditions which put everyone to the test, in fact we concluded the championship with very high scores. I can't say I'm completely satisfied but I'm happy that I always gave my best and never gave up. I thank so much the Federation who supported me, my family who gave me courage and my sponsors.”