10 Aug 2010 at 14:36 | Published by: Hans | Views: 9995 | News search

Lorenzo Bellucci, Italy best after the first day in Sochi  (Photo by Pasi Aho 2010)

Today was the first day of the Youth World Championships in Sochi, Russia. The tournament is played on Eternit and a MOS Beton course and especially on the Beton course it's very hot due to the warm Russian Summer sun.

The Boys home Team from Russia started in a quite spectacular way. Their four starting men's had an average 26,3 on the Beton course with the first blue result (24) by Evgeny Stelmashonok as the Russian starting man. Unfortunately for the home team the two last boys couldn’t follow up on that start and on the next lap on eternit the whole team was on a more mediocre level and the team is placed in sixth position after the first day.

Instead of Russia it was another surprise Team taking over the lead by brilliant play. Italy was lead by 3 times Lorenzo (Bellucci, Ciopmi and Levis) and played really well and was in the lead for the boys almost all day. Lorenzo Bellucci also took the individual lead with 73 strokes.

It was not until the German closing boy Andreas Schneider by a splendid game on the third lap could give Germany the lead by two strokes. The German Team had put their best players in the back and their number 5 (Robin Hettrich) and number 6 Schneider acted as steam trains pulling their team to the lead by scoring 74 and 76 on the first day.

In third position we find Austria that made the round of the day in the last Beton round by scoring 157 on six players (26,2 in average). That took them from 6th position after two rounds to the bronze position. On the third lap the Austrian boy Kevin Feuchtl scored a new course record with 23 strokes. In fourth place, only one stroke behind Austria, we find Sweden that had a terrible last Beton round where they actually lost by 26 strokes to Austria.

It seems after the first day that in the boy's category we will have a battle between Germany and Italy for the Gold and between Austria and Sweden for the Bronze. But of course it’s a long way to go. Only 3 of 8 rounds have been played so far.

In the Girls class Austria has taken the lead but it seems to be a close and unpredictable starting field. The Austrian girls have played quite consistently (the only girl team with green average) the whole day without any dips or really highlights and that was enough for the lead by 3 points in from of Germany. Jacqueline Helm and Lara Jehle were best in the Austrian Team on 75 strokes.

Germany on the other hand started off terribly and was actually last of the five teams until the last round. But a really sharp 65 on the difficult eternit last round took them from last position to the silver position with only 3 strokes up to the Austria. Germany also seems to have some reserve capability in their back pocket since their substitute player Vanessa Peuker is best in the team.

In third position we find Switzerland lead by Manuela Bamert on 77 strokes. Switzerland is only one stroke in front of Sweden in fourth position where we also find the best individual player of the day. Sara Karlsson has scored 70 strokes on the 3 first rounds with a blue 24 on the Beton. She leads individually by 5 strokes before the two Austrian girls on 75 mentioned above.

The Russian Girls in fith position is not at all out of the medals. They are 7 strokes behind Switzerland in Bronze position and have played really well lead by Siranush Balasanyan on 79 strokes.

The individual starting field in the girl's side is quite tough. Vanessa Peuker in firth position has only 4 strokes down to the 16th and last finalist position for Saturday.

More excitement will follow tomorrow.

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