470 Men and Women Worlds - Game on for Olympic Qualification

by 470 International Association Class on 17 Sep 2014 Two conflicting breezes cancelled each other out this morning at the 470 Men and Women World Championships, keeping teams postponed ashore. But it was soon back out to the ocean courses for the 470 Men and Women in what turned out to be another challenging day for teams and the Race Committee.

The first race of the day proved unpredictable and shifty as the breeze struggled to settle down, before stabilizing for the second race and giving teams the first opportunity to stretch their legs. With the four race qualification series concluded, the Olympic qualification hunt is now well and truly game on. Sixteen nations have advanced to gold fleet and are gunning for the ten qualification places on offer for Rio 2016.

A win from race 3 in the yellow fleet popped the 2012 Olympic silver medallists Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) into the overall lead, helped by the discard coming into play to knock out their 11th place finish from race 1. Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar took the win in the blue fleet and moved up to second, whilst overnight leaders Maelenn Lematire/Aloise Retornaz (FRA) who finished eighth, dropped from first to third overall.

Race 4 was a nail biter, with gold and silver fleet qualification on the cards to decide the shortlist of nations in with a chance at Olympic qualification.

Blue fleet race 4 rewarded race winners Michelle Broekhuizen/Marieke Jongens (NED) with leaderboard gains, and Slovenia’s Tina Mrak/Veronika Macarol did the same in the yellow fleet.

Mills/Clark kept consistent to take a third place finish and wrap up the four race qualification series in first overall, with Vadlau/Ogar holding onto second overall and leaping up to third from their 3,1 scores are Broekhuizen/Jongens.

The gold fleet final series is set to unfurl into a massive battle for Olympic qualification as teams from 16 nations fight for just 10 nation slots. Brazil is the 17th nation in the gold fleet, but receives an automatic slot to Rio 2016, and as Brazil’s two 470 Women teams have both advanced to gold fleet, the battle for them is all about finishing ahead of each other.

Lemaitre/ Retornaz proved their day one race performance was no fluke, scoring an 8,10 today to advance to gold fleet in fourth overall. Impressive form from the 2013 and 2014 470 Junior World Champions, positions them as the only junior circuit team to qualify to gold fleet. Clear validation of how tough it is stepping up to senior fleet racing.

'It is great, because we have been training a lot,' said Lemaitre. 'But the first day, we were really surprised to do this, but now we know it is possible so we will see. It is fantastic and great for us as it is very difficult in the senior fleet. We just did less mistakes than the others. We have to continue again and again. This is just four races so far,' she smiled.

Superb racing from the American pair of Annie Haegar/Briana Provancha crushed the blue fleet, as they walked away with a 2,3 to easily advance into gold in leaderboard sixth.

'We are just really happy to finally feel better in the boat,' commented Haeger. 'I think the first day we struggled with trying to make the boat feel good and forgot that we were sailing a race. So we had much better communication today. I think our goal of feeling like we are back out there is on track.'

Their opening day scorecard of 14,7 was not quite what they had planned and needing a rethink.

'We kind of sat down and revaluated and focused in on things we felt were weakness the first day,' explained Haeger. 'Getting back to basics was important for us. Getting off the start line, getting the first shift and making the boat go well is what we are good at. If we can feel like we did today getting off the water every day, then I think it is going to be a good event.'

Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar move up into second overall after winning race 3 by around 50 metres. A good start and superb boat speed in race 2 saw them under control and knowing it was just a question of picking out the boats ahead, and they moved into the lead after the second upwind leg. But a devastating mistake on the tight reaching leg saw them put their spinnaker up and unable to sail to the mark, with other teams choosing not to hoist and able to sail lower, to simply overtaking, leaving the Austrians to finish in fifth.

'Mistakes happen,' reflected Ogar. 'When you are leading, sometime your head is already on the finish line. In these shifty conditions it doesn’t matter if you are leading, you must be focused all the time, I think this was our error. We have six races to go, and are not even in the middle of the regatta.'

Ogar is keen to get into gold fleet racing, 'For us it is a little easier when we have all the top teams together because we know what to expect and it is more predictable. Now it will be more constant and we will see what happens.'

First hurdle accomplished for some, as the top 27 teams advance to gold fleet and the other 27 teams qualify to silver for the six race final series. And a perfect three from three for China's 470 Women teams, with all teams advancing to gold fleet in places eighth, 11th and 12th.

Based on provisional results and subject to any protest outcomes, the 16 nations in the gold fleet in with a shot at qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are (in country order): Australia, Austria, China, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United States of America.

Gold Fleet Races 5 and 6 will be held on Wednesday 17 September on Murimar Course with a scheduled warning signal of 1500 hours. There is no racing for the 470 Women Silver Fleet tomorrow.

The day was really complicated and long for the 74-boat 470 men fleet. Three races were on the cards to get the qualification series completed, but the breeze again failed to play ball. Two races were held for the yellow fleet and just one for blue today. The conditions put extra pressure on sailors to stay focused and ready to jump into action as and when the breeze fills in, and today’s six hours wait on the water made it the longest day so far.

'It has been pretty hard, really shifty and really variable,' commented 2012 Olympic Champion Mat Belcher. 'It is really hard to run a race in these conditions. I guess what was a bit disappointing today was in one race we were stopped for more than five minutes in just two knots of breeze.'

In total contrast to their opening race 37th place, Spain’s Onan Barreiros/Juan Curbelo won race 2 in the yellow fleet and leapt up the leaderboard. But a follow-up disappointment for the world ranked #13 pair as they took a black flag startline penalty in race 3, and will now need a top finish tomorrow to guarantee their place in the top 50% of the fleet who advance to gold fleet racing.

Numerous teams suffered the same fate with ten others boats awarded a BFD penalty. Penalty scores for other top teams for Rule 42 infringements has also put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons in the leaderboard shuffle. At the time of writing several requests for redress are on the table with the International Jury, and you can check the status here.

Over in the blue fleet, the USA’s Stuart McNay/David Hughes repeated their form from Sunday’s opening day of racing, and took another win in race 2 to move into the overall lead. Although the blue fleet count only two races to the yellow fleet’s three races, the Americans still top the overall leaderboard. As in practice their race result from race 3 would be discardable anyway, leaving them counting two race wins.

2009 470 World Champions Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic from Croatia are sitting happy on a 2,8 scorecard, 'It has started well with our second place, and today after a tricky day we took an eighth. So two races and so far so good,' said Fantela. 'Our main goal is qualifying the nation and for the World Championship result we will see. I don't want to say anything, because we see the conditions are quite hard and it is early in the Championship to forecast anything.'

The pair took 470 Worlds bronze medals in 2010, 2011 and 2012, so are well experienced in managing their performance through an event, as Fantela continued, 'The most important thing is to stay calm, stay patient and stay positively focused. It will be a long Championship.'

So, the line-up for gold and silver fleets is still fully open, and teams are just hoping to get the qualification series wrapped up on Wednesday 17 September, and move onto the six race final series on Thursday and Friday to ensure a full schedule of races for this critical Olympic qualification event.

The pressure is now on the Race Committee to use Wednesday’s scheduled reserve day and get the qualification series finalized, with one more race for yellow and two for blue fleet. 470 Men racing is scheduled to get underway at 1100 hours on Telefonica Course.

470 Men Overall

 

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race			Points
				1	2	3	Total	Net
1	FRA	FRA 7	Nicolas Charbonnier Achille Nebout-Javal	2	(17)	4	23.00	6.00
2	ITA	ITA 99	Francesco Rebaudi Matteo Ramian	(25)	6	3	34.00	9.00
3	GBR	GBR 863	Luke Patience Elliot Willis	(12)	3	6	21.00	9.00
4	ITA	ITA 27	Matteo Pilati Francesco Rubagotti	(35)	8	2	45.00	10.00
5	AUS	AUS 11	Mathew Belcher William Ryan	6	5	(38) DNF	49.00	11.00
6	FRA	FRA 27	Sofian Bouvet Jeremie Mion	1	11	(38) DNF	50.00	12.00
7	CHN	CHN 1041	Wuwei Liu Dongwu Lyu	11	2	(38) BFD	51.00	13.00
8	AUS	AUS 6	Alexander Conway Patrick Conway	4	10	(17)	31.00	14.00
9	FIN	FIN 7	Joonas Lindgren Niklas Lindgren	5	(15)	11	31.00	16.00
10	NZL	NZL 2	Paul Snow-Hansen Daniel Willcox	14	4	(20)	38.00	18.00
11	JPN	JPN 11	Kazuto Doi Kimihiko Imamura	(13)	13	5	31.00	18.00
12	RUS	RUS 5	Pavel Sozykin Denis Gribanov	10	(16)	8	34.00	18.00
13	RUS	RUS 2	Mikhail Sheremetyev Maxim Sheremetyev	(22)	9	9	40.00	18.00
14	ESP	ESP 9	Onan Barreiros Juan Curbelo Cabrera	19	1	(38) BFD	58.00	20.00
15	ISR	ISR 17	Gal Cohen Dan Froyliche	(28)	7	14	49.00	21.00
16	POR	POR 10	Joao Villas-Boas Francisco Pinheiro de Melo	21	(38) DNF	1	60.00	22.00
17	GER	GER 15	Julian Autenrieth Philipp Autenrieth	3	(27)	21	51.00	24.00
18	PHI	PHI 88	Ridgely Balladares Whok Dimapilis	20	(24)	7	51.00	27.00
19	CHN	CHN 1267	Hao Lan Chao Wang	(23)	12	16	51.00	28.00
20	FRA	FRA 44	Pierre Leboucher Nicolas Le Berre	17	(38) UFD	12	67.00	29.00

 

470 Women Overall

 

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Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race				Points
				1	2	3	4	Total	Net
1	GBR	GBR 118	Hannah Mills Saskia Clark	(11)	2	1	3	17.00	6.00
2	AUT	AUT 431	Lara Vadlau Jolanta Ogar	2	(11)	1	5	19.00	8.00
3	NED	NED 6	Michelle Broekhuizen Marieke Jongens	4	(13)	3	1	21.00	8.00
4	FRA	FRA 39	Maëlenn Lemaitre Aloïse Retornaz	2	1	8	(28) DSQ	39.00	11.00
5	FRA	FRA 9	Camille Lecointre Hélène Defrance	3	(5)	4	4	16.00	11.00
6	USA	USA 1712	Anne Haeger Briana Provancha	(14)	7	2	3	26.00	12.00
7	NZL	NZL 75	Jo Aleh Polly Powrie	(7)	5	6	2	20.00	13.00
8	CHN	CHN 619	Shasha Chen Haiyan Gao	6	(9)	2	6	23.00	14.00
9	SLO	SLO 64	Tina Mrak Veronika Macarol	4	11	(14)	1	30.00	16.00
10	NED	NED 216	Afrodite Kyranakou Anneloes van Veen	1	10	5	(17)	33.00	16.00
11	CHN	CHN 616	Xiaomei XU Ping Zhang	6	3	(21)	7	37.00	16.00
12	ESP	ESP 27	Angela Pumariega Patricia Cantero Reina	3	4	(26)	10	43.00	17.00
13	CHN	CHN 1261	Huimin Feng Lizhu Huang	5	1	(14)	12	32.00	18.00
14	BRA	BRA 177	Fernanda Oliveira Ana Luiza Barbachan	1	3	16	(28) UFD	48.00	20.00
15	SUI	SUI 5	Linda Fahrni Maja Siegenthaler	11	2	8	(15)	36.00	21.00
16	JPN	JPN 1	Ai Kondo Yoshida Miho Yoshioka	7	(25)	4	10	46.00	21.00
17	GBR	GBR 321	Christina Bassadone Eilidh McIntyre	16	(19)	3	5	43.00	24.00
18	RUS	RUS 97	Alisa Kirilyuk Liudmila Dmitrieva	18	6	(19)	4	47.00	28.00
19	AUS	AUS 99	Carrie Smith Jaime Ryan	8	(22)	5	15	50.00	28.00
20	ESP	ESP 14	Bàrbara Cornudella Sara López Ravetllat	8	10	10	(18)	46.00	28.00