The wind confounded us for a second day in a row at the SSL Gold Cup European Qualifiers on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, but thanks to results in the three races held beforehand, two more teams have booked their ticket for Rio.
Wednesday saw up to 25 knots at times, but from multiple directions and far too unstable to set a course. Thursday tantalised, with 5 knot breezes coming in fits and starts, but soon fading out. It was frustrating for the sailors, the spectators, and the race committee who gave the breeze every chance, right up until the last allowed start time of 4pm where they were forced to race AP over A and cancel racing.
So the results stand after three races with the Estonian Icebreakers qualifying from Group D on 8 points ahead of the Austrian Eagles on 6 and the Slovenian Krpani 1860 on 4.
In Group E the Lithuanian Ambers qualified on 11 points, with the Norwegian Norstream finishing on 9, the Belgian Sea Devils on 6 and the Serbian Eagles on 4 points.
It is a bitter pill to swallow for the teams who miss out, but sport can be cruel sometimes, and the performance of both the Estonian Icebreakers and Lithuanian Ambers was exemplary in the three sailed races, sealing their place at the SSL Gold Final Brasil 2026, the second Football World Cup… in Sailing.
Lithuanian Ambers’ Rokas Milevičius, whose team lit up the inaugural SSL Gold Cup, was understandably elated to make it through the superbly competitive Group E: “Wow, I feel amazing! That’s what we all came for, the ticket to Rio! We achieved our goal.”
Estonian Captain Karl-Hannes Tago added: “It’s a great relief. After two days of waiting it’s really good. Today was really difficult with no wind at all, and we waited until the very last minute, when at 4 o’clock the racing was cancelled.”
The teams all gathered at the main stage for the prize–giving ceremony, with the Lithuanian and Estonian teams celebrating as one. The champagne was sprayed, the national anthems played, and the party got started. The rivalry between the two nations could fire up in Rio, but for now they were both equally happy to progress in the competition.
On whether he would have rather sailed for the last two days instead of the agonising waiting around, Rokas gave a very honest response: “I would be lying if I said that I was sad we didn’t have any races today, because we were leading after the second day of racing, where we had three amazing races, with a strong, nice breeze. On the other hand, it’s always nice to sail these boats. We really enjoy racing against competitive teams, country against country, trying to win the races and score points, so we’re a bit sad that there’s no racing, but on the good side, we’re super happy to sail that well on the second day.”
Karl-Hannes added: “The second day was a really fun day when it was windy, and we felt really fast in the strong winds. Overall though I would say I’d have enjoyed sailing more rather than waiting for two days. Now we will go back and do our own racing, and then try to get back as a group in the autumn; during the summer everybody is so busy.”
It is hard for SSL Gold Cup teams to find time to train as a full team, as Rokas explained: “It’s a challenge. We have a couple of interesting projects back home with some bigger boats and we will try to get the whole team together, but I think that’s the complexity and the beauty of this project: It combines so many different sailors from all over the world and for us all over our country, so finding time to train together is hard, but we’re already sitting as a team and looking at our calendars as to when we can squeeze in training, planning to get ahead of the November qualification.”
The next SSL Gold Cup European Qualifiers are taking place at Lake Neuchâtel between the 14th and 17th July, but for now it’s celebration time on the Road to Rio!
