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oncluded on Sunday 25th, at Athens Greece, at the facilities of Kalamaki Nautical Club, the 1st Ever Clinic of the Regatta of Champions – The R.O.C., in Optimist. The Clinic was organized by the Famagusta Nautical Club who is the organizer of the Inaugural Chesva 2.0 Regatta of Champions that will take place in November, in Limassol Cyprus.
The Clinic was performed by three of the Top Coaches in the world, in the Optimist Class – Fernando Alegre, Simone Ricci and Antonis Drosopoulos. It was one of its kind, made for the highest level sailors. It lasted for 5 days with the participation of 52 sailors from 11 countries. It included more than 50 hours of pure sailing, theories, training drills, 6 practice races, 11 official races, more than 35 starting drills, 4 different sailing courses with an introduction to the OptiGPRace and introduce even new innovative parts to make Optimist Sailing more sailor friendly.
It was possibly the Highest Level Optimist Clinic ever performed and the 52 sailors worked really hard for the last 2 Wild Card Spots of the Chesva 2.0 Regatta of Champions that ended up in the hands of Hugo Rodriguez from Spain and Victoria Demurtas from Italy.
Through the 11 races Victoria finished 1st from the Girls with Maria Anna Makri (GRE) 2nd and Konstantina Ragkousi (GRE) 3rd. In the Boys category, 2022 European Champion Iason Panagopoulos (GRE) finished 1st with Emmanouil Vomvylas (GRE) 2nd and David Coates (USA) 3rd. Hugo Rodriguez finished 5th Overall, but with the top 4 already being invited to The R.O.C., earned the valuable invitation.
Everyone was thrilled with the format, the concept and the high performance level of the Clinic. Responding at the end, the three Coaches mentioned the following:
Fernando Alegre "The R.O.C. Clinic was an outstanding event that brought together very talented and motivated athletes, knowledgeable and passionate coaches and the vision and will to improve and modernize junior sailing of The R.O.C. founders. It was a pleasure to work with these young athletes and to share with them our experience to fast track their sailing skills and their racing learning process. We had 5 intense days where we had many hours of theory sessions, videos, on water drills and where we managed to complete 11 quality races to determine 2 Wild Cards for The R.O.C. that will take place in November. The sailors were shown many videos of past world champions so we could analyze in detail the different techniques for the different conditions. At the same time, the tricky conditions of the Saronic Gulf, allowed us to discuss multiple strategy, tactics and racing scenarios that were mentioned together with the mental aspect needed in such a complex sport like sailing. A big thanks to all the athletes, the coaches, the organizers, the volunteers, the parents and to Kalamaki Nautical Club for putting together a world class event. I'm sure the sailors are returning home with a lot of new information, with a lot of new friends and with the inspiration and motivation to keep working hard to achieve their goals. The future is bright for all these athletes... See you at the ROC in November..!" Simone Ricci “It has been a very interesting mix of knowledge sharing with coaches in an extremely positive atmosphere! Sailors were polite, working hard and showing us a very high quality of sailing! The format of The R.O.C. is amazing and races are tight and open until the end. Thanks Stelios Charalambous, Kalamaki Nautical Club and all Volunteers, Parents and Sailors!” Antonis Drosopoulos “The R.O.C. Clinic in Greece combined it all. Knowledge, innovation, cooperation and for sure was one of the most passionate clinics of the season. The other two maestros put everything in the board and in the water and we had a smooth cooperation with only one thing in mind; to serve in the highest level our joined team of sailors. Great atmosphere and great competition. Kalamaki Nautical Club was a great host. A great test event for the upcoming R.O.C. and a fantastic environment for brainstorming various things we can improve for the most popular sailing class.”