The Sopot Junior, Youth & Masters Festival of Windsurfing 2008 is under way! The opening ceremony took place on Sunday evening at the pier in Sopot. Everything began with the parade from the pier to Copacabana club, where the organisers of the regatta welcomed the crowd. The colourful parade, which was led by drums and trumpets playing reggae tunes, was quite a sight. The group of more than 500 people, of which more than half were the athletes, walked through Sopot catching the attention of strollers who came for their Sunday walk.

After two races, 13 year old Brit Kieran Martin heads the 6.8 fleet with two bullets. There are 48 kids in this fleet. The youngest competitor, Mayah Rafic from Israel, turned 10 just two days ago and managed a very creditable fourth in Race One.

Italians Catherine Fogli and Veronica Fanciucci jointly lead the twenty five under-15 girls, Veronica taking the first bullet with Catherine second, then they swopped places in the next race.

Strong in front of the Techno 293 U17 boys group is Arek Brzozowski from Poland with two first places. A whopping entry of 75 in this fleet! For many of the competitors in this fleet the results were very variable - a second in the first race for Marcin Urbanowicz, also for Poland, became a 19th in the next race, whereas a 12th in the first race for Jose Perez of Spain improved to 2nd. Much to play for as the competitors settle down for some serious competition during this World Championship event.

34 girls in the 7.8 fleet are led by Izzy Hamilton (GBR) and Helene Noesmoen (FRA). Polish Natalia Kacprzyk deserves a mention as she triumphed with a bullet in race two after suffering a poor 26th position in the first race.

With seventeen additional competitors sailing in the Open Fleet this brings the total number of competitors on Technos to 199! Thirteen nations are represented, reaching out as far as New Zealand.

Running alongside the Techno 293 Worlds are also the Raceboard Europeans and Raceboard Youth and Masters Worlds, bringing a total of 258 competitors to Sopocki Klub Zeglarski, Sopot, Poland this week. Add to that the coaches, supporters, friends and family and we have a mega event. The weather gods have even been kind enough to provide warm sunshine and a good breeze!

Results and photos are available on the event website. Stay tuned for more . . .