Very difficult to read the combination of light breeze and up to nearly 1 knot of current on the first day of the Cartagena event.

From start to finish it was Synergy hardly putting a foot wrong whilst being chased by Bribon like a terrier.

All others struggled at times in one way or the other, Quantum the most solid of the rest and happy to finish in 3rd, ahead of their main rivals for the overall Audi MedCup win.

It was very good to get a race in, it was the only window in an otherwise very windless day and Maria opened it at exactly the right moment.

Rod Dawson (NZL), Tactician, Synergy (RUS):
“A really light day here, with tricky conditions, we sort of had a plan to get to the left side of the racecourse and that paid off well up the first beat. At the first mark we managed to stay ahead of Bribón and we stayed there the whole race. It was really close until the end but we managed to hold them off at the end. It´s a good start for us, hopefully we can get going with good results. I think that the boat is pretty good in light conditions, we are really happy about it, but having said that, the boat loves sailing is 15-20 knots conditions.”

Francesco Mongelli (ITA), navigator Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS):
“Today was very good, we have done everything perfectly and the race went very good, from the start. And then we had a good speed for all the race, and we kept, thanks to the speed, the side that we wanted. And that was the correct side.
Compliments to the whole team who made the boat go fast, to the guys that made the manouvres to go on the right side, and to the people that have chosen that side.”

Gonzalo Araújo (ESP), Skipper, Bribón (ESP):
“It was a tough day out there but we sailed well in all departments. We´ve also been a bit lucky because days like today are complicated. We are happy because it was the first race and it was pretty easy for something to go wrong and start the trophy with the wrong foot. We did not start well, but we caught a couple shifts and we managed to keep a second place. We spent the rest of the day trying to catch Synergy, but keeping an eye on the boats behind us. We controlled our position well during the whole race. We have to be really positive about what we did today.”