The first stage of the event took place in Marina di RagusaItalia Cup Ilca, one of the most important events in the national sailing scene.
Around 350 athletes from the Ilca 4, Ilca 6 and Ilca 7 classes with their coaches and, in some cases, also their accompanying families, met in Marina di Ragusa to four days of racing from Friday 9th to Monday 12th February. The seaside resort was brought to life by young sailors coming from around 40 Italian sailing clubs, very young people who have just left the Optimist class (the Ilca 4) and kids who have never stopped having fun with their dinghy but who are now starting to get serious and dream of international competitions and, why not, the Olympics. Ilca 6, in fact, is an Olympic discipline for women and Ilca 7 is for men.
The sporting event, organized by the Kaucana sailing club on specific behalf of the Italian Ilca classes association, started on Friday morning with a celebratory moment specially organised to raise awareness about very current topic of gender violence. In the presence of the president of the Kaucana sailing club, Nunzio Micieli, of the councilor for sport and youth policies Simone Digrandi and of the councilor for Equal opportunities and inclusion Elvira Adamo, of the Municipality of Ragusa, and of the representatives of some voluntary associations operating in this area, a red bench was positioned in the space in front of the CVK headquarterswith some on top female shoes of the same color, theme symbol. A red ribbon was placed on each competitor’s sailse all athletes, from the beginning to the end of the competition, they traced two red marks on their facestestifying to their attention towards a topic that concerns them so closely.
The issue of gender violence was taken up again on the occasion of the awards ceremony which was attended, among others, by the deputy prefect of Ragusa Cettina Pennisi and the police commissioner Vincenzo Trombatore.
Unfortunately, the four days of the regatta were strongly influenced by the weather, as often happens at this time of the year: no tests on Friday, due to the almost total absence of wind, on Saturday the sailors had all taken to the water with enthusiasm but, a sudden change in the weather, with a very strong wind well above 30 knots, has, for safety reasons, led to the return to port of all the racers. On Sunday and Monday, strong winds and rough seas, with waves up to 3 meters high, did not prevent the races from taking place, albeit with a large number of abandonments, especially among the youngest and least experienced. But, despite the weatherthey were beautiful regattas that highlighted the sporting potential but also the beautiful Iblean territory. The added value of the regattas, and of sporting competitions in general, is also this: a unique opportunity to promote, once again, this beautiful coastline.
The awards ceremony, which took place on Monday afternoon in a festive atmosphere on the terrace of the tourist port of Marina di Ragusa which hosted the event, saw, in addition to the authorities already mentioned, the presence of the mayor of Ragusa Peppe Cassì, of the regional deputies Giorgio Assenza and Nello Dipasquale, while the regional councilor for Tourism Elvira Amata, the president of the Sicilian regional assembly Gaetano Galvagno, the honorable Ignazio Abbate and the commissioner of the Free municipal consortium Patrizia Valenti sent a message of greeting.
At the end, these are the results:
for the Ilca 7 Class, first place overall for Andrea Crisi (Yc Cannigione), followed by Mattia Santostefano (Svoc) and Antonio Barabino (Yc Olbia). For the U21 category again Mattia Santostefano and Antonio Barabino. For the female Ilca 6 class, first place overall Zofia Wojcik (Tognazzi Marine Village), first also for U21, second place Alice Consalvo (Tognazzi Marine Village), first also in the U19 class, and third place Valentina Chelli (Cv Laspezia). For the U17 class Marina Murri (CN Lampara). In the Ilca 6 class first place for men Antonio Pascali (Fv Riva), also first in the U19 class, second Nicolò Cassitta (Yc Olbia) and third Manuel Henk Vos (Fv Malcesine), the latter also first U17, while for the Over 30 first place by Andrea Sgarallino (Va Livorno).
In the Ilca 4 class for women first place for Chiara Pallua (Fv Malcesine), second place for Livia Beltrano (Lni Ostia) and third for Giulia Marella (Cv Venezia). In the U16 category first place goes to the home athlete Cvk Gilda Nasti, followed by Irene Vaglini (Cn Livorno) and Martina Volpicella (Cv Bari). In the Ilca 4 male class the young CVK athlete, Paolo Salvo climbs onto the second step of the podium, behind Lorenzo Ghirotti (Fraglia Vela Riva) and followed by Giovanni Bedoni (Fraglia Vela Riva), the latter first U16. In second and third place U16 Claudio Crocco (Fraglia Vela Riva) and Lorenzo Gabrieli (Sn Pietas Julia).
The organizing club was also very satisfied with the results of its competitive athletes of the Ilca Class who performed very well in the Ilca 4 class with a second place overall for Paolo Salvo and a first place for female U16s by Gilda Nasti.