With lots of Europe countries in COVID lockdown, it is no surprise this year's Star European Championships at Lake Garda in Italy has drawn only 18 competitors.

As regular Afloat readers will know, Ireland's Peter O'Leary and Robert O'Leary from Baltimore Sailing Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club are regular International attendees but the sole Irish Star duo are not competing this year. 

The O'Leary brothers finished 14th overall in a fleet of 90 at the 2019 European Championship in Italy.

While this year's entry is low, the strength of the class is shown in the wide spread of ten European countries competing at Lake Garda.

Yesterday, two more extraordinary races sailed today in Riva del Garda, Italy, on the third day of racing. A strong wind from the North allowed the fleet to keep the schedule and close today Race Five and Six in the morning, granting the teams to throw out their worst score.

European Champion Diego Negri with crew Sergio Lambertenghi (ITA) were on fire yesterday, after a very slow start of the championship, winning both races with a huge margin over the rest of the fleet, and by discarding a 10th they jump up to fourth place, two points away from the podium. In third place, Croatian duo Tonci Stipanovic and Tudor Bilic, in second the Austrian team comprised of Hans Spitzauer and Christian Nehammer and on top, after four days leading, Piet Eckert (SUI) and Frederico Melo (POR) who discarded today their worst score so far, a seventh.

One more day today, and only one more race allowed to reach the maximum of seven races scheduled by the Notice of Race. If Negri/Lambertenghi can still aim for podium, the mission looks almost impossible for the team in the provisional rankings, 2017 Star World Champion Eivind Melleby with Martin Hejlsberg (NOR), eight points away from third. Nonetheless, we might still see some changes among the top teams, and the fight for the title of 2020 European Champion will be fierce tomorrow on the water.

Full results here