Hobart sailor Matt Bugg has won his second successive regatta in Europe in his lead-up to the Rio Paralympic Games, scoring an impressive victory in the Garda Trentino Olympic Week on Italy’s Lake Garda which ended early today.
Bugg last week won the gold medal 2.4mR class at the Hyeres Regatta in France and has followed this with an overall win on Lake Garda where weather conditions curtailed racing in most Olympic and Paralympic classes.
The 2.4mR class was restricted to seven races with Bugg winning four of them and finishing third in two of the other races.
His discard was a seventh, which gave him an 11 point margin from American Dee Smith, who will represent the USA at Rio.
Third place went to Finnish sailor Niko Salomaa, who also is heading for Rio.
This year’s regatta will certainly go down as one of the most disappointing editions of Garda Trentino Olympic Week; on one hand for the absence of many of the Olympic Laser and Finn classes who were at other regattas are in preparation for the Rio Olympics, and for the other for the terrible weather that limited the number of races.
This is practically unheard of in a location like Upper Garda where the normal weather conditions guarantee at least three races a day with winds on average 12-14 knots.
Matt Bugg racing on Lake Garda this week. He won the 2.4mR class.
This, however, was not to be. The regatta Committee on the race courses of Riva del Garda (Fraglia Vela Riva) and Malcesine (Fraglia Vela Malcesine) gave it their best shot.
Peter Campbell
14 May 2016
