| RUSSIA’S RISING STAR |
| Saturday, 18 August 2007 |
Evgeny Neugodnikov is one of the newer faces on the World Match Racing Tour, and at 25, one of the youngest. He’s split two matches against America’s Cup legend Dean Barker and he’s 2-0 against the Australian Cup star James Spithill. With a best finish on the Tour of fourth place at the recent Match Race Germany, and a sixth place on the ISAF Match Race Rankings (as of July 25 2007) Neugodnikov is a name we’re sure to be hearing more of over the coming months and years.
“I started sailing when I was about 10, in Russia, on a lake quite similar to this one here at St. Moritz. I’ve been match racing for nearly six years now, and when I started, one of my crew was my uncle!” Neugodnikov says, laughing. “But after a few years we had to change; he can’t travel with us – he needs to work.”
“My goal is to be a good, professional sailor, working on good projects. But of course my main goal is to sail in the America’s Cup. That’s my target. There hasn’t been a Russian sailing in the Cup before.”
Of course, he’s not the only sailor on the World Match Racing Tour with that goal. And although there has been talk of Russian America’s Cup challenges in the past, to this point, a Russian team hasn’t been able to the get to the start line. In fact, just being a pro sailor in Russia is a challenging proposition.
“In Russia it’s not easy to be a professional sailor. After some difficult times in the country, now there is money again, but not everyone who has that kind of money knows about sailing. And they won’t spend the money unless they are sure to win. So if we can show that we are a team that can win, we’ll get better sponsors. It’s not so easy to get our story across in Russia but we’re working on it.”
The World Match Racing Tour is clearly the easiest way to do that. Not only does Neugodnikov rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the sport but it’s a great way to learn from the best sailors in the world.
“It’s not always easy to get into these events, but the World Match Racing Tour is the best way to sail against the best sailors and get good experience. Each event we do is good for us. It’s a friendly atmosphere, and now we have some good friends among the French, German and some of the Italian sailors.”
Although Neugodnikov and his team (Alexander Ekimov - tactics, Nikolay Kornev – bow, Besputin Konstantin – mainsail) sail in other events, including the odd big boat fleet racing regatta, his heart is in match racing, so you can expect to find Russia’s rising star on the World Match Racing Tour for years to come.
“We sail the TP 52’s with the Russian team and in some of the other big boat regattas, but my focus, my passion is really match racing. This is what I want to focus on.”
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