– A perfect kickoff for the EC Cascais –

– 4 races on the first day

– Steve Allen leading after the first day –

Cascais / Lisbon (Portugal), June 5th 2003. The Windsurfing Euro-Cup
Cascais had a perfect kickoff: Four races were sailed already on the first
day. The conditions for the racers were very challenging as the offshore
wind was shifty and gusty and demanded a lot of tactical skill from the
competitors. The wind range lasted from 9 knots to 19 knots.

In the first race the race the wind was quite weak during the start but
the race brought a surprise with Ross Williams (GBR-83, Starboard,
Gaastra) scoring his first victory of the season and finally proving that
he is tuned in his new Starboard equipment finally. He was followed by
Fanatic top racer Steve Allen (AUS-0, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) and young
Polish hotshot Michal Polanowski (POL-16, Starboard, Neil Pryde).

In the next race the wind provided a much better breeze. Steve Allen, the
Euro-Cup Champion of 2002 was able to return to the performance of last
year and dominated this race. Ross Williams added a second place. Fanatics
wild animalPieter Bijl (NED-0, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) got third.

After this race the competitors were sent ashore for a break to give them
a chance to eat and drink something and to recover. In the meantime the
wind continued to build up. So the racers were well fired up in the third
race. This time Pieter Bijl kicked his Falcon T2 to the top in front of
Pawel Hlawati (POL-124, Fanatic, Neil Pryde) and the new F2 team rider
Devon Boulon (ISV-1, F2, Windwing).

The final race brought another victory for the Australian Steve Allen.
Michal Polanowski got second in front of Aleks Grynis (POL-86, Starboard,
Neil Pryde). The Polish Starboard rider had a terrible start into the
regatta but got stronger and stronger over the day.

After the first day with four races and one discard Steve Allen is leading

at the Windsurfing Euro-Cup in Cascais with two victories, a second and a
seventh place and a total of 3,4 points. Ross Williams can be very
satisfied with his second place with a total of 6.7 points in front of
Michal Polanowski from Poland with 9 points. The fourth place is occupied
by Pieter Bijl (10.7 points) from the Netherlands in front of the current
leader of the Euro-Cup Andrea Cucchi (15 points).

The forecast for the next days looks very promising so that nothing is
decided yet. For tomorrow we expect another four races that will introduce
the second discard. The skipper meeting is set for 11:00. The first
possible start is scheduled for 12:00.

You can find more information, results, pictures etc. and follow the
competitions online on the official Website of the Windsurfing Euro-Cup
<http://www.euro-cup.org/www.euro-cup.org and on the FW Class Website
<http://www.formulawindsurfing.org/www.formulawindsurfing.org .