Russian Open Championship in the class «Dragon» ended in St. Petersburg. During four days organizers held 6 races, half of them fell on the final day, when the weather finally spared the wind.
Thanks to this, the teams could count on throwing away the worst result. This helped some of the competitors and made life even more difficult for others. So three days leaders - Dmitry Samokhin (6.0 points), Vasily Senatorov (7.0) and Mikhail Senatorov (8.0) had their races without any glaring failures. The worst result for them meant a great competition from the competitors who were very close to making it into the top three. For example, Alexey Murashkin's team, with 13 points could eliminate their eighth result in the second race, which pulled them beyond the top three.
The main struggle on the final day unfolded between the aforementioned crews who were in the top four. Theoretically, however, any crew from fifth to eighth place could theoretically reach the podium. The first condition was that a leader had to make a mistake and the second condition was that the athlete trying to win the medal had to show a consistently good result.
However, the leaders did not commit any serious blunders and the teams from the middle of the list could not perform better either.
Nevertheless, the last day - and we can even say the last race of the day - were decisive for the four top teams of the championship. Dmitry Samokhin's crew started the day unconvincingly, coming in sixth in the first race. In the second race they were third and only victory in the last race in combination with luck brought them the gold medal and the championship title.
«We had a chance to win only if we came in first in the last race and our rivals came in second. That's how it turned out. We won, and Vasily Senatorov's team finished in second place, for which we are very grateful. It's noteworthy that everything was decided in the last race - very interesting for those who followed the championship», - commented Dmitry Samokhin.
The second place went to Mikhail Senatorov's crew.
«The fight among the first four boats was very tight. Chances were equal for everyone. Today after each race the position changed: who was the first, who was the second... It was only the last race that settled everything. The last race was a hard one: at the finish we had to prevent a team from jumping to the fourth position and ending up with a bronze medal. We coped with this task and found ourselves higher in the overall standings», - Mikhail Senatorov said.
And they didn't miss Alexey Murashkin's team, which eventually became third. It is interesting, that the team participated in races in such composition for the first time.
«Since we haven't raced together as a team before, each race was like a first for us. It is clear with the guys: they know everything and know how to do it. But for me it was a minute-to-minute shock. I had to be at one with the team and the boat, but I was like a person learning to drive. He looks at unfamiliar pedals and knobs and then looks up - wow! Signs, pedestrians, cars... In this case I am still at the stage of pedals and gearboxes», - admitted Murashkin.
First 5 places at Russian Championship were distributed as follows:
1. Dmitry Samokhin (Andrey Kirilyuk, Alexey Bushuyev), RUS76 - 10 points
2. Mikhail Senatorov (Maxim Semerkhanov, Alexander Yanin), RUS31 - 12
3.
Alexei Murashkin (Vadim Statsenko, Alexander Shalagin), RUS12 - 13
4.
Vasily Senatorov (Igor Ivashintsov, Alexander Muzychenko), RUS34 - 13
5.
Sergey Borodinov (Alexander Mironov, Yury Samoilov), RUS81 - 24.
Additional scoring «Classic»:
1. Gleb Suloev (Alexey Totin, Sergey Dalnev), RUS11 - 46 points
2.
Victor Los (Denis Karelsky, Dmitry Arsenyev), RUS22 - 57
3. Sergey Bakharev (Levon Isakyan, Alexander Lebedev), RUS84 - 68
