Stanisław Trepczyński's bronze in Puck after five hours of fighting for wind

It is the first world championship medal in the class won by a Pole on Polish water, and the fulfilment of what he had promised after two days of racing, when three race wins lifted him to second overall. Five days later, on an almost windless Saturday, he carried it home.

Five hours on the water, half an hour ashore

The championship began on Monday and for five days the sailors raced in demanding conditions: first in qualifying races, then in the finals, and on Saturday the medal series decided the podium. Stanisław Trepczyński was at his best in stronger wind, so Saturday, when there was hardly any, promised to be the hardest day of the week.

So it proved. Light wind put the finals in doubt, racing was interrupted several times and the sailors were sent ashore for about half an hour. The whole fight for medals lasted almost five hours. Stanisław Trepczyński qualified for the final as the second sailor and took second place in the decisive race, which gave him bronze.

- I have just become a U23 world championship bronze medallist on Polish soil, in Puck. I am incredibly pleased. A hard week of racing, a lot of emotion, good moments, weak moments. In the end I managed to carry this medal all the way - Stanisław Trepczyński said after the final. - Before today's finals I was quite stressed, because there was very little wind. I was afraid we would not sail the finals at all, and that once we got out it would be very hard. I fought to the very end, I pumped. I think I won a fight not only on the water but in my own head, that I can sail in such conditions and that this is possible too.

Maciej Dąbek tenth, Aleksandra Wasiewicz one race short of the medal series

Maciej Dąbek of AZS Poznań also appeared in the men's medal series. He started in the quarter-final, did not advance and finished the championship in tenth place.

The most bitter story belongs to Aleksandra Wasiewicz, Stanisław Trepczyński's club-mate from Sopot. In the women's fleet she regularly finished in the top five, but two false starts cost her places in the overall standings. When her spot in the medal series seemed secure, in Friday's last race, just after the start, her mast broke. She did not finish and ended up just outside the top ten that advanced to the fight for medals. She finished the championship eleventh. After two days she had been tenth; on Saturday the difference between tenth and eleventh was the difference between racing for a medal and watching it from the shore.

The last regatta of the season

Saturday's medal series was streamed live on the Polish Yachting Association's YouTube channel, with commentary from Maja Autenrieth, an Olympian in the iQFOiL class and ambassador of PGE Sailing Team Poland, and Zuzanna Golba.

- It was a wonderful week. Thank you for the excellent organisation and for hosting us in Puck - said Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, iQFOiL class manager, at the closing ceremony, also thanking chief judge Ewa Jodłowska for completing the full programme of races.

Medals were presented by, among others, the association's president Tomasz Holc and sporting director Dominik Życki. The iQFOiL U23 Worlds were the last regatta of the season organised by the Polish Yachting Association, after the five-part Polish sailing championships that this year passed through Mechelinki, Puck and Gdynia. Puck, which in a single season hosted the national and the world championships, closes the summer with a medal for a sailor from neighbouring Sopot.