ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao – Another day of light breeze

by ISAF on 18 Sep 2015 Another day of light breeze and testing current made for minimal separations across the nine fleets competing at ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao.

After a short wait for wind the 320 competitors from 32 nations took to the water mid-afternoon for some tight racing where any mistake was duly punished.

With the competition reaching the midway point the leader boards are shaping up nicely ahead of Sunday's Medal Races where Abu Dhabi World Cup final spots will be awarded, prize money distributed, world cup medals presented and Rio 2016 Olympic Games spots snapped up.

Laser and Laser Radial

Very little separated the Laser and Laser Radial fleets with packed mark roundings and bunched finishes a common occurrence across the two races in each fleet.

Winning races in any sport is a wonderful feeling. Knowing you've controlled a pack of racers behind you generates positivity but in sailing, it's a different game. Across a series of races consistency ultimately pays and France's Jean Baptiste Bernaz has proved this point with a pair of fourths to promote him to second overall, just three points off Lorenzo Chiavarini (GBR).

'It was light and shifty, all day,” Baptiste Bernaz quickly summarised ashore after racing, 'it was just like yesterday more or less. I had a four and four which is a good day, I think.”

And a good day it was indeed as the Frenchman advanced up the leader board but he knows exactly where he wants to be come Sunday evening, 'I came here to win,” he exclaimed. 'I still have two days to do it in this fleet. It's a good level with sailors from Croatia, Cyprus, Australia, Virgin Islands and Canada. There are many good sailors who know how to play these winds and I'm pretty happy to be second at the moment.”

Overnight leader Chiavarini was consistent on the day, but not the way he would have wanted it. A pair of 13th place finishes was enough for him to maintain his advantage but only just.

Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) was unable to fully start the regatta the way he wanted it with a 27th and a black flag coming from the first three races but things have picked up for the defending champion. He managed to secure an 11th and second to move into third spot.

The day's race wins in the Laser went the way of Ryan Palk (AUS), who is 18th overall and the seventh placed Pavlos Kontides (CYP).

It's tight at the top in the Laser Radial with two points splitting Manami Doi (JPN), Dongshuang Zhang (CHN) and Isabella Bertold (CAN).

Out on the race track both races were exceedingly close. The 28-boat fleet could barely be separated with the competitors looking to gain an edge any which way possible.

A matter of metres separated the competitors at the finish which made for some nerves on the race track. However the leading trio sailed well with control. Doi secured a 5-4, Zhang a 6-1 and Bertold a 2-9.

If Doi, Zhang and Bertold continue to post strong scores, the chasing pack will struggle to make the gains on the penultimate day ahead of Sunday's Medal Race.

Men's and Women's 470

Spain's Onan Barreiros and Juan Curbelo Cabrera lead the way in the Men's 470 after a good day on the water, heading back ashore with a bullet and a third to show for their efforts.

They are being pushed by China's Hao Lan and Chao Wang who lay in second overall, but it is in the middle of the pack where it starts to get interesting.

Fighting for an Olympic qualification place are the Korean and Thailand teams. Currently with their noses in front are Korea's Chang Ju Kim and Ji-Hoon Kim who managed to mark off both ends of the spectrum with a discarded OCS in the first race before coming back to take a bullet in the next.

Talking of the first race, crew Ji-Hoon Kim said, 'We had some pressure and our minds and we were a little bit nervous. We could not see the line and we just pulled the main sheet and we had an OCS.”

Kim continued, 'Our second race we were fast, and now I think we have a chance for Olympic qualification. We will try hard tomorrow, but it will still be very hard. But I am happy with our sailing.”

One place behind the two Kim's are Thailand's Navee Thamsoontorn and Nut Butmarasri who ended with a 13th and a discarded 16th.

It is still all too play for on the Olympic qualification front with Korea's Daeyoung Kim and Hyun-Ho Yun and Singapore's Darren Choy and Jeremiah Yeo hunting the two teams just ahead of them in the standings.

In a three way shootout between Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong in the Women's 470 for Olympic qualification, it is Priscilla Low and Shu Xian Lee of Singapore who have the initiative.

Low and Lee are ahead of Malaysia's Nuraisyah Jamil and Norashikin Mohd Sayed and Hong Kong's Catherine Carroll and Chi Han Yau.

Despite a 15th in the first race of the day, which they discard, the Singaporean pair came back with a sixth in the second race to stay above their Rio qualification rivals.

Sitting above them, and all others in the fleet, are Japan's Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka who finally took the bullet they have been so close to all regatta. They stand top with ten points.

Taking the first bullet of the day were the second placed Xiaoli Wang and Lizhu Huang of China. Adding a third to the bullet means they have 15 points, just two ahead of compatriots Sasha Chen and Haiyan Gao.

Men's and Women's RS:X

Tied at the top of the Men's RS:X are China's Bing Ye and Tao Li who both sit on 37 points. Ye took a bullet in the second race which was sandwiched between a fifth and eighth which all count on his scorecard. Li however posted a 14th in the second race which he discards. Fortunately for Li he scored two seconds to keep in touch with his compatriot.

Overnight leader Mateo Sanz Lanz of Switzerland slips down to fifth on the leader board.

China's Jiahui Wu continues to lead the Women's RS:X with a third, fifth and sixth place finish which she discards. Wu tops the leader board with 17 points.

Closest rival to Wu is China's Peina Chen on 23 points which was helped by a bullet from the first race, followed by a third and a discarded seventh.

Spain's Blanca Manchon is the nearest challenger to the Chinese sailors, lying in fourth overall on 45 points.

Finn and 49er

Lei Gong (CHN) and Luwen Shen (CHN) jockeyed for position in the Finn fleet as they shared the bullets on the third day of competition. Gong holds the advantage at the top of pack on eight points but Shen remains within touching distance on ten points.

The third placed He Chen (CHN) has shown he has the beating of the duo after he won the second race of the week but with an OCS his discard, he can't take too many risks if he is to overtake the leading pair.

In the 49er, Kim Sungwok and Yang Hoyeob (KOR) are tied on ten points with Bongjim Chae and Kim Dongwook (KOR). The teams have four race victories apiece across the eight races over three days.

Nacra 17

It's hard to bet against Justin Liu and Denise Lim (SIN) in the Nacra 17 with the pair making it look easy in the light Qingdao air.

Liu and Lim's lightweight frames have seemingly given them a strong advantage in the Nacra 17 in Qingdao and after a 1-3-1 they have opened up a ten point advantage over Hong Kong's Tat Choi Fung and Yu Ting Chan.

Across the week the Singaporean pair have won seven of nine races, dominating the fleet. On the race track itself Liu and Lim have found themselves behind at the first mark on several occasions but continuously push their way up through the bunch for win after win.

With the event acting as the Asian Nacra 17 Rio 2016 Olympic qualification regatta, another good day could see them book their spot on the start line and plan their road to Rio.

Racing at ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao resumes at 12:00 local time on Saturday 19 September.

Overall results
470 Men

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	ESP	ESP 9	Onan Barreiros Juan Curbelo Cabrera	1	4	(27) OCS	6	1	3	42.00	15.00
2	CHN	CHN 1267	Hao Lan Chao Wang	3	(19)	4	1	6	10	43.00	24.00
3	AUT	AUT 437	David Bargehr Lukas Mähr	4	12	(17)	3	2	4	42.00	25.00
4	JPN	JPN 12	Keiju Okada Yugo Yoshida	9	1	10	(12)	5	6	43.00	31.00
5	CHN	CHN 181	Weidong Wang Chuantian Wen	(13)	11	2	9	8	2	45.00	32.00
6	CHN	CHN 189	Yong Chen Youjian Wen	17	(22)	1	7	4	8	59.00	37.00
7	ESP	ESP 22	Rayco Tabares Alvarez Alfredo Gonzalez	2	10	(27) OCS	5	12	11	67.00	40.00
8	CHN	CHN 1418	XIUJIAN HUANG Yang Wang	6	3	6	22	3	(27) DSQ	67.00	40.00
9	KOR	KOR 113	Chang ju Kim ji-hoon kim	10	2	9	19	(27) OCS	1	68.00	41.00
10	THA	THA 8	Navee Thamsoontorn Nut Butmarasri	11	14	5	2	13	(15)	60.00	45.00
11	KOR	KOR 115	Daeyoung Kim Hyun-ho Yun	8	5	(27) OCS	13	15	12	80.00	53.00
12	CHN	CHN 1218	Mingcheng Ding Maokui Li	15	7	18	10	(27) RET	5	82.00	55.00
13	SIN	SIN 11	Darren Choy Jeremiah Yeo	(27) OCS	6	15	4	10	27 BFD	89.00	62.00
14	PHI	PHI 103	Emerson Villena Lester Troy Tayong	(19)	19 STP	12	8	7	17	82.00	63.00
15	CHN	CHN 1219	MINGLIANG DING HONGRI LIU	14	17	7	16	9	(19)	82.00	63.00
16	CHN	CHN 67	Zangjun Xu Wei Wang	12	8	14	(21)	17	14	86.00	65.00
17	CHN	CHN 183	Liangdao Weng Qiaowen Lin	5	20	(27) OCS	14	16	13	95.00	68.00
18	CHN	CHN 673	JIANYONG XU CHENG CHEN	(20)	16	16	11	20	7	90.00	70.00
19	CHN	CHN 221	Xiaotian ZHANG HANTING GUO	(27) DNF	21	11	18	14	9	100.00	73.00
20	CHN	CHN 643	JIAN XIANG JICHANG WANG	7	15	21	(23)	11	20	97.00	74.00
21	CHN	CHN 1421	HUICONG MAI ZINAN LI	16	13	3	(25)	21	22	100.00	75.00
22	MAS	MAS 25	Mohamad Faizal Norizan Muhamad Fauzan Ruslan	24	9	8	20	(27) OCS	27 BFD	115.00	88.00
23	IND	IND 1	Praveen Prabhakar vishnu areekara sujeesh areekara	(23)	23	13	15	19	18	111.00	88.00
24	HKG	HKG 32	Sui Lun TSE Ho Yin Chik	21	(24)	19	17	18	21	120.00	96.00
25	NZL	NZL 5	Sam Barnett Zak Merton	18	(26)	22	26	22	16	130.00	104.00
26	CHN	CHN 205	Guodi Fan Dianji Li	22	(25)	20	24	23	23	137.00	112.00

470 Women

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	JPN	JPN 1	Ai Kondo Yoshida Miho Yoshioka	3	2	2	2	(4)	2	15.00	11.00
2	CHN	CHN 1221	Xiaoli Wang Lizhu Huang	4	4	4	3	1	(5)	21.00	16.00
3	CHN	CHN 619	Shasha Chen Haiyan Gao	6	1	1	(9)	7	3	27.00	18.00
4	JPN	JPN 3	Akiyo Yamaguchi Eri Hatayama	(17) OCS	7	3	5	2	1	35.00	18.00
5	CHN	CHN 621	Mengxi Wei Yani Xu	7	3	5	7	3	(9)	34.00	25.00
6	ESP	ESP 27	Angela Pumariega Patricia Cantero Reina	2	5	7	4	12	(17) OCS	47.00	30.00
7	CHN	CHN 616	Xiaomei Xu Ping Zhang	1	11	(12)	6	9	7	46.00	34.00
8	CHN	CHN 186	Shengnan Ni Yayin Lin	11	12	6	(13)	5	6	53.00	40.00
9	CHN	CHN 2011	Xian He Yan Zhou	5	8	13	(14)	8	12	60.00	46.00
10	SIN	SIN 12	Priscilla Low Shu Xian Lee	9	13	8	8	(15)	8	61.00	46.00
11	CHN	CHN 188	Qian Fu Jinlian Xie	8	6	10	12	(13)	11	60.00	47.00
12	CHN	CHN 2036	Jiaxin Li Shuang Tian	12	(15)	15	1	10	10	63.00	48.00
13	CHN	CHN 1217	Nan Zhang Xiao Lv	(17) RET	17 RET	14	11	6	4	69.00	52.00
14	MAS	MAS 26	Nuraisyah Jamil Norashikin Mohd Sayed	(17) OCS	10	11	10	11	17 DSQ	76.00	59.00
15	CHN	CHN 252	XINYU JIANG XINYU SHEN	(17) OCS	9	9	15	14	17 RET	81.00	64.00
16	HKG	HKG 34	Catherine Carroll Chi Han Yau	10	14	16	16	16	(17) OCS	89.00	72.00

49er Men

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race								Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Net
1	KOR	KOR 207	sungwok kim Hoyeob Yang	(2)	2	1	1	2	1	2	1	12.00	10.00
2	KOR	KOR 515	Bongjin Chae Dongwook Kim	1	1	2	(3) OCS	1	2	1	2	13.00	10.00

Finn Men

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	CHN	CHN 1224	Luwen Shen	2	3	(6)	1	1	3	16.00	10.00
2	CHN	CHN 30	XIN LI	(4)	4	3	2	3	2	18.00	14.00
3	CHN	CHN 1226	Lei Gong	1	2	1	(11) OCS	11 DNE	1	27.00	16.00
4	CHN	CHN 1225	He Chen	3	1	2	(11) OCS	2	11 DSQ	30.00	19.00
5	CHN	CHN 122	YINSHENG CUI	5	(6)	4	3	4	4	26.00	20.00
6	CHN	CHN 162	Fusen Jiang	6	(7)	5	5	5	5	33.00	26.00
7	CHN	CHN 2031	ZHENG YE JIA	8	5	(10)	4	6	6	39.00	29.00
8	IRI	IRI 69	Ahmad Ahmadi	7	8	(9)	7	7	7	45.00	36.00
9	CHN	CHN 20	Hong Pu	(11) DNF	9	8	6	8	8	50.00	39.00
10	CHN	CHN 12	WENLONG HAN	9	(10)	7	8	9	9	52.00	42.00

Laser Men

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	GBR	GBR 206940	Lorenzo Chiavarini	(17)	3	1	1	13	12	47.00	30.00
2	FRA	FRA 208457	Jean Baptiste Bernaz	10	4	(13)	12	4	4	47.00	34.00
3	BEL	BEL 202016	Wannes Van Laer	18	9	3	2	(19)	13	64.00	45.00
4	CRO	CRO 208709	Tonci Stipanovic	1	27	(38) BFD	5	11	2	84.00	46.00
5	CHN	CHN 200551	Jianan Wu	14	(26)	10	3	14	9	76.00	50.00
6	CYP	CYP 209167	Pavlos Kontides	2	14	7	(33)	33	1	90.00	57.00
7	ISV	ISV 177038	Cy Thompson	3	5	17	7	(28)	25	85.00	57.00
8	RUS	RUS 202692	Sergey Komissarov	(27)	12 STP	20	11	7	7	84.00	57.00
9	TTO	TRI 184116	Andrew Lewis	(35)	10	14	24	2	11	96.00	61.00
10	GBR	GBR 209134	Elliot Hanson	13	(31)	5	14	25	5	93.00	62.00
11	CAN	CAN 207130	Robert Davis	11	16	(23)	6	12	18	86.00	63.00
12	AUS	AUS 208331	Jeremy O'Connell	7	29	9	(32)	9	10	96.00	64.00
13	AUS	AUS 208360	Mitchell Kennedy	5	20	(38) BFD	15	5	20	103.00	65.00
14	CRO	CRO 207268	Filip Jurišic	8	13	16	(30)	17	15	99.00	69.00
15	BRA	BRA 202522	Bruno Fontes	6	(30)	4	16	21	23	100.00	70.00
16	CHN	CHN 205006	Jian Qiao	25	2	(38) BFD	18	10	16	109.00	71.00
17	AUS	AUS 166021	Ryan Palk	30	32	6	4	1	(38) OCS	111.00	73.00
18	NZL	NZL 207496	Andrew McKenzie	(23) RDG	23	12	8	16	14	96.00	73.00
19	BEL	BEL 207173	WILLIAM DE SMET	12	1	11	31	22	(38) DSQ	115.00	77.00
20	CHN	CHN 203376	Huichao Chen	19	12	(38) BFD	22	18	6	115.00	77.00
21	SIN	SIN 197538	Colin Cheng	21 RDG	15	(38) BFD	10	6	30	120.00	82.00
22	JPN	JPN 188830	Shinnosuke Yasuda	36	18	2	27	(38) OCS	3	124.00	86.00
23	CHN	CHN 203232	Yulong Qiu	16	6	15	26	23	(31)	117.00	86.00
24	SWE	SWE 199611	Anders Karlsson	4	(33)	19	9	24	33	122.00	89.00
25	SIN	SIN 206746	Scott Sydney	22 RDG	22	(38) BFD	25	15	8	130.00	92.00
26	USA	USA 194180	Christopher Barnard	26	21	8	20	(32)	29	136.00	104.00
27	CHN	CHN 203460	Jinfu ZHOU	24 RDG	8	18	(35)	31	24	140.00	105.00
28	CHN	CHN 198801	Jian Shi	(33)	24	27	13	20	21	138.00	105.00
29	EST	EST 203724	Karl-Martin Rammo	(29)	7	22	38 DNE	26	17	139.00	110.00
30	ARG	ARG 199261	Agustin Vidal Incatasciato	15	28	24	21	(35)	22	145.00	110.00
31	MNE	MNE 207266	Igor Les	(31)	17	21	17	30	27	143.00	112.00
32	SWE	SWE 207831	Marcus Magnusson	34	34	(38) BFD	19	3	28	156.00	118.00
33	NZL	NZL 208337	Michael Bullot	32	25	(38) DNC	38 DNC	8	19	160.00	122.00
34	SWE	SWE 203145	Philip Claesson	9	(35)	25	28	34	34	165.00	130.00
35	SWE	SWE 201727	Emil Bengtson	37	19	28	23	(38) OCS	26	171.00	133.00
36	SWE	SWE 201729	Claes Törnsten	20	(37)	26	34	27	32	176.00	139.00
37	CHN	CHN 200817	Ning Zhao	28	36	(38) BFD	29	29	35	195.00	157.00

Laser Radial Women

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race						Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Net
1	JPN	JPN 199066	Manami Doi	1	(7)	3	4	5	4	24.00	17.00
2	CHN	CHN 201213	Dongshuang Zhang	5	3	(7)	3	6	1	25.00	18.00
3	CAN	CAN 206892	Isabella-Anna Bertold	4	(12)	2	2	2	9	31.00	19.00
4	CHN	CHN 200041	Min Gu	7	6	5	1	(16)	6	41.00	25.00
5	NZL	NZL 202441	Sara Winther	3	17	(29) RET	7	4	3	63.00	34.00
6	BEL	BEL 207172	Maité Carlier	12	2	11	6	(21)	5	57.00	36.00
7	BLR	BLR 203778	Tatiana Drozdovskaya	15	5	(16)	5	8	12	61.00	45.00
8	AUS	AUS 207855	Ashley Stoddart	2	15	13	8	(19)	10	67.00	48.00
9	SIN	SIN 186755	Elizabeth Yin	10	(20)	9	9	3	18	69.00	49.00
10	CHN	CHN 202171	Weiyi Lu	18	(25)	15	13	1	8	80.00	55.00
11	GBR	GBR 202551	Hannah Snellgrove	8	1	(25)	21	7	19	81.00	56.00
12	JPN	JPN 202613	Kanako Hiruta	6	(19)	14	12	13	11	75.00	56.00
13	GBR	GBR 206251	Alison Young	11	18	18	10	(20)	2	79.00	59.00
14	FRA	FRA 209019	Pernelle Michon	17	8	(20)	11	9	17	82.00	62.00
15	CHN	CHN 203811	Anni Wang	9	24	6	(25)	12	14	90.00	65.00
16	CHN	CHN 203381	SHIQIAN YI	14	22	1	20	11	(24)	92.00	68.00
17	CHN	CHN-200817	Zitong Shang	(29) DSQ	16	10	14	14	16	99.00	70.00
18	NZL	NZL 192281	Susannah Pyatt	21	13	8	19	(22)	13	96.00	74.00
19	CHN	CHN 200418	Nana Hu	13	14	(19)	17	17	15	95.00	76.00
20	CHN	CHN 202067	Shujuan Huang	24	11	4	18	(27)	20	104.00	77.00
21	SWE	SWE 208879	Lovisa Karlsson	16	10	(22)	16	15	22	101.00	79.00
22	CHN	CHN 203831	Yajie Wang	26	26	12	(29) OCS	18	7	118.00	89.00
23	CHN	CHN 203826	Shuang Yang	19	5 STP	24	(29) RET	23	21	121.00	92.00
24	CHN	CHN 203834	Fan Guo	22	9	26	15	25	(29) DSQ	126.00	97.00
25	CHN	CHN 199869	YUCHEN ZHANG	20	21	21	(29) OCS	10	25	126.00	97.00
26	CHN	CHN 209501	Haijiao Yu	23	23	(27)	22	26	23	144.00	117.00
27	UKR	UKR 207102	Sofiia Larycheva	27	(28)	17	24	24	29 DNE	149.00	121.00
28	CHN	CHN 199284	Lingling Shen	25	27	23	23	(28)	26	152.00	124.00

Nacra 17

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race									Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Net
1	SIN	SIN 16	Justin Liu Denise Lim	1	1	1	1	1	(3)	1	3	1	13.00	10.00
2	HKG	HKG 9	Tat Choi Fung Yu Ting Chan	2	3	2	2	3	(8)	2	4	2	28.00	20.00
3	CHN	CHN 296	Zijin Wen Rubei Yuan	3	2	(4)	4	4	1	3	1	3	25.00	21.00
4	THA	THA 131	Damrongsak Vongtim Nichapa Waiwai	5	5	3	3	5	2	4	7	(11) OCS	45.00	34.00
5	JPN	JPN 249	Hiroki Goto Wakako Tabata	4	4	6	5	2	7	9	6	(11) OCS	54.00	43.00
6	CHN	CHN 293	Changhao Li Yingying Zhang	7	7	5	(8)	7	6	8	5	4	57.00	49.00
7	CHN	CHN 294	Xuezhe Yang Qingmeng Wang	(9)	6	8	6	8	5	5	9	6	62.00	53.00
8	BUL	BUL 47	Yoana Petrova Nikolay Tashev	6	(10)	10	7	9	4	6	8	5	65.00	55.00
9	CHN	CHN 295	Jingjing Yu Feng Wen	8	(9)	7	11 DNE	6	9	7	2	7	66.00	57.00
10	HKG	HKG 291	Yui Shing Tong Kit Fong Tong	(11) OCS	8	9	9	10	10	10	10	11 OCS	88.00	77.00

RS:X Men