The French Espoir Championships of the French Sailing Federation took place from August 19 to 24 in La Rochelle with no less than 700 participants aged 14 to 21 who competed in different categories and models of dinghies such as Lasers, 420, Open 570 and 15 foot catamarans.
Emilien Le Normand from the SMVT (St Martin Voile pour Tous) club in Friar's Bay was selected with other riders from the Guadeloupe League to participate in LASER ILCA4 Men with 80 other competitors also selected from other French leagues and overseas to take part in the France Espoir FFV championships.
On Sunday's first day of racing, Emilien looked for his marks in a light wind, without demerit, but with a grimace back at the quay. The next day and the day after, he showed progress and finished some very good races between 15th and 20th places. For the day of Wednesday, August 23, despite the expectation and impatience of all the competitors, no race will be launched due to the heat wave and the complete absence of wind. The next day, the last day of the championship, a nice breeze with 25 knots of wind will end the event in style. After 12 races, Emilien ranks 30th overall, which is a very good performance for a first championship with very few points difference to reach the top 20. We can also point out that he finished 3rd in the riders' classification. born in 2009 (U15) against riders from 2007/8 (U17). It is a great first for a sailor from Saint-Martin to take part in the French Espoir FFV championships and a huge satisfaction for the members and supervisors of the young SMVT sailing club in Friar's Bay created by Antoine Bonna just after the passage of the Hurricane Irma. Emilien and other promising runners from the SMVT club are already aiming to resume training from September 15 with great ambitions for the 2023-2024 season in order to represent the island of Saint-Martin at regional, national and even internationally. Congratulations again to Emilien for his performance! _VX
https://faxinfo.fr/en/voile-belle-performance-demilien-le-normand-aux-championnats-de-france-espoir/
