470 Class Japan National Championships –Day 6– Nippon Boys keep podium
by Aiko Saito on 23 Aug 2017
Day 6 – Race start – 470 Class Japan National Championships Junichi Hirai/ Bulkhead magazine
http://www.bulkhead.jp/
Last day, only Medal Race was sailed. Many sailors who did not proceed to the Medal Race went out on the spectator boats.
Many support to the Nippon Boys who are narrowly in front of Belcher/Ryan, the current world champion. On a hot summer day at Enoshima, gentle seabreeze started as usual, however, it did not increase, and the Medal Race started at 13:45 after some waiting on shore.
4-5kt of wind filled in the race area, andDemichi (JPN) lead to Mark 1. On the run, Isozaki managed to over take Demichi, and rounded Mark 2 ahead. Second upwind – course has been shifted to left, and shortened its length. Demichi managed to come back to first, and Isozaki was right beind. Everyone was very close, and few protest shouting for the on the water judge.
Big drama in the end – Isozaki was in a lead, on the finishing mark side. Somehow, they were late to gybe back to Mark 2, and allow Okada and two other boats to round ahead. Okada finished first and also won the 2017 All Japan title. ‘Great to win! Very happy. I have nothing to lose, so just concentrate to win a race.‘ said Okada.
Okada is also the defending champion of the 470 Junior World Championship. He will sail with a different (younger) crew from Aug 28 to Sep 2 at Enoshima.
Mat Belcher enjoyed the depth of 470s in Japan. ‘Certanly, the All Japan was great event, and we enjoyed racing against Japanese sailors. We learned a lot this year, and come back next year!’
Nippon Boys managed to defend the All Japan title from the Olympic and World Champions and medalists. Many sailors, friends and families went out to watch the real medal race – so many RIBs were full. To overseas visitors and competitors, thank you for coming. To Japansese teams, more training and come back next year. See you again in Aug 2018.
The 470 Class Japan National Championships 2017 Final Result
1st Keiju Okada/JunpeiHokazono 51 points
2nd Tetsuya Isozaki/Akira Takayanagi 56 points
3rd Naoki Ichino/Takashi Hasegawa 61 points
4th Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan 74 points
5th Hippolyte Machetti/Sidoine Dantes 78 points
6th Kosuke Demichi/Taiga Nakagawa 82 points
7th Carl-Fredrik Rock/Marcus Dackhammar 85 points
8th DenizCinar AtesCinar 87 points
9th Ryo Imamura/Ryusuke Oshima 92 points
10th Kazuto Doi/Naoya Kimura 92 points
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