Rio 2016 - Light winds greet the start of four events in Pre-Olympics

by Sail-World.com NZL on 16 Aug 2015 The four Olympic events on show on the opening day of the Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta faced a light wind test across two racing areas inside Guanabara Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Mens and Womens Singlehander (Laser and Laser Radial) fleets, racing on the Ponte course, and the Men's and Women's RS:X, sailing on Escola Naval, had to contend with a 6-10 knot southerly breeze. Bathed in Rio's winter sun the competitors were put to the test with those who had done their homework on the light conditions coming to the forefront.

Men's RS:X

China's Aichen Wang was fast out of the blocks posting a fifth and double bullets in the Men's RS:X. The Chinese sailor has an early advantage over Pawel Tarnowski (POL) but with nine more fleet races and the Medal Races remaining, Wang won't be getting carried away with his good start.

Pierre Le Coq (FRA) finished second at the 2014 test event and started well once again at the 2015 edition. An opening race win backed up by a sixth and a fifth leaves him third overall.

After racing Le Coq said, 'I was a bit frustrated in the last race as I was first on the upwind but it was tricky out there with a lot of current. The Chinese sailor managed the current best today and he now leads the fleet.

'I expected to see the Chinese sailor at the front as I have been training with him for the past few weeks and he is on form. I am not surprised.

'I am still in the game and it is not a bad beginning.”

Wang tops the leaderboard on two points followed by Tarnowski on five and Le Coq on six.

Women's RS:X

The performance of the day in the Women's RS:X came from Poland's Malgorzata Bialecka. Whilst she does sit third overall she was the most consistent performer, recording a third and a second and a fourth, which she discards.

Lilian De Geus (NED) also had an impressive day, notching up a 2-(6)-3 and sits in second.

Hei Man Chan (HKG) tops the billing in the Women's RS:X on four points. However, Chan started her event off with a tenth which she discards. Whilst it's not a bad score for Chan, she will want to ensure her performances over the coming days replicate the third and first that she ended her day on.

Mens Laser

London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Pavlos Kontides (CYP) and five time Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt (BRA) hold the early advantage in the Laser after a consistent day on the water. The pair are locked on nine points apiece with Kontides sailing his way to a 2-7 and Scheidt, a 6-3.

Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) started the day off with a standout performance that saw him beat Kontides by 17 seconds as he explained, 'It was really light conditions. In the first race I had a plan to stay on the right [side of the course] and I was heading first to the right but the guys in the middle had some more pressure so I was sixth by the up mark. Immediately in the downwind I passed two boats, then on the upwind I stuck with my plan to stay right and there was more pressure and I finished first.”

Stipanovic was unable to capitalise on his outstanding start and could only manage a 14th which leaves him fourth overall at the early stage of the competition.

The day's other race victory went the way of Nick Thompson (GBR) who is fifth overall.

Laser Radial

Marit Bouwmeester (NED) was impressive in the Laser Radial and leads the way on eight points. She opened her day up with a second and followed it up with a sixth.

Veronika Fenclova of the Czech Republic is two points off the Dutch sailor after an 8-2 with Gintare Scheidt (LTU) third on 13 points.

Race victories were picked up by Manami Doi (JPN) who is ninth overall and the fourth placed Paige Railey (USA).

The remaining racing areas on the opening day were filled with the sailors from the other six Olympic events who were fine tuning their preparations for the start of their competition. Racing continues on Sunday 16 August at 13:00 with all ten of the Olympic events taking to the water.

 Laser - Men - Overall Results

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Net
1	CYP	Pavlos Kontides	2	7										9.0	9.0
2	BRA	Robert Scheidt	6	3										9.0	9.0
3	EST	Karl-Martin Rammo	4	10										14.0	14.0
4	CRO	Tonci Stipanovic	1	14										15.0	15.0
5	GBR	Nick Thompson	16	1										17.0	17.0
6	NZL	Andy Maloney	11	6										17.0	17.0
7	ITA	Francesco Marrai	5	13										18.0	18.0
8	NED	Rutger van Schaardenburg	17	4										21.0	21.0
9	GUA	Juan Ignacio Maegli Aguero	13	9										22.0	22.0
10	USA	Charlie Buckingham	3	21										24.0	24.0
11	AUS	Tom Burton	12	16										28.0	28.0
12	CAN	Lee Parkhill	24	5										29.0	29.0
13	RUS	Sergey Komissarov	7	23										30.0	30.0
14	SWE	Jesper Stalheim	29	2										31.0	31.0
15	ARG	Julio Alsogaray	27	8										35.0	35.0
16	URU	Federico Yandian	10	25										35.0	35.0
17	TUR	Onur Bilgen	18	17										35.0	35.0
18	FIN	Kaarle Tapper	9	27										36.0	36.0
19	NOR	Mathias Mollatt	22	15										37.0	37.0
20	GER	Philipp Buhl	14	24										38.0	38.0
21	KOR	Jeemin Ha	20	18										38.0	38.0
22	BEL	Wannes Van Laer	21	19										40.0	40.0
23	ESP	Joaquín Blanco	19	22										41.0	41.0
24	FRA	Jean Baptiste Bernaz	32	11										43.0	43.0
25	HUN	Balázs Tomai	8	36										44.0	44.0
26	SIN	Colin Cheng	33	12										45.0	45.0
27	RSA	Stefano Marcia	15	35										50.0	50.0
28	TUN	Youssef Akrout	23	29										52.0	52.0
29	EGY	Ahmed Ragab	26	26										52.0	52.0
30	POL	Kacper Zieminski	34	20										54.0	54.0
31	POR	Eduardo Marques	25	33										58.0	58.0
32	IRL	James Espey	28	30										58.0	58.0
33	CZE	Viktor Teply	36	28										64.0	64.0
34	ESA	Enrique Jose Arathoon	30	34										64.0	64.0
35	SUI	Guillaume Girod	35	32										67.0	67.0
36	GRE	Andreas Perdicaris	37	31										68.0	68.0
37	BRN	Abdulla Janahi	31	38										69.0	69.0
38	DEN	Michael Hansen	39 DSQ	37										76.0	76.0

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Net
1	NED	Marit Bouwmeester	2	6										8.0	8.0
2	CZE	Veronika Kozelska Fenclova	8	2										10.0	10.0
3	LTU	Gintare Volungeviciute Scheidt	10	3										13.0	13.0
4	USA	Paige Railey	13	1										14.0	14.0
5	ITA	Silvia Zennaro	12	5										17.0	17.0
6	BRA	Fernanda Demétrio Decnop Coelho	9	8										17.0	17.0
7	FIN	Tuula Tenkanen	7	11										18.0	18.0
8	CHN	Dongshuang Zhang	3	18										21.0	21.0
9	JPN	Manami Doi	1	21										22.0	22.0
10	CRO	Tina Mihelic	5	17										22.0	22.0
11	ISR	Oren Jacob	6	16										22.0	22.0
12	DEN	Anne-Marie Rindom	20	4										24.0	24.0
13	BEL	Evi Van Acker	15	13										28.0	28.0
14	ESP	Alicia Cebrian	4	25										29.0	29.0
15	ARU	Philipine Van Aanholt	22	9										31.0	31.0
16	ARG	Lucía Falasca	19	12										31.0	31.0
17	SWE	Josefin Olsson	26	7										33.0	33.0
18	GUA	Andrea Aldana	23	10										33.0	33.0
19	RUS	Elena Vorobeva	11	23										34.0	34.0
20	TUR	Nazli Cagla Donertas	14	20										34.0	34.0
21	GBR	Alison Young	21	14										35.0	35.0
22	SUI	Maud Jayet	18	19										37.0	37.0
23	NOR	Tiril Bue	25	15										40.0	40.0
24	PER	Paloma Schmidt	16	27										43.0	43.0
25	CAN	Isabella-Anna Bertold	17	26										43.0	43.0
26	SIN	Elizabeth Yin	24	24										48.0	48.0
27	FRA	Mathilde de Kerangat	27	22										49.0	49.0
28	IRL	Annalise Murphy	28	28										56.0	56.0

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Total	Net
1	CHN	Aichen Wang	(4)	1	1											6.0	2.0
2	POL	Pawel Tarnowski	3	(8)	2											13.0	5.0
3	FRA	Pierre Le Coq	1	(6)	5											12.0	6.0
4	ESP	Ivan Pastor Lafuente	(29) UFD	3	3											35.0	6.0
5	SUI	Mateo Sanz Lanz	5	2	(7)											14.0	7.0
6	NED	Dorian Van Rijsselberge	2	5	(29) UFD											36.0	7.0
7	ITA	Mattia Camboni	(15)	9	4											28.0	13.0
8	BRA	Ricardo Santos	9	4	(10)											23.0	13.0
9	GRE	Byron Kokkalanis	7	(17)	6											30.0	13.0
10	HKG	Cheng Chun Leung	8	(23)	8											39.0	16.0
11	GBR	Nick Dempsey	6	(16)	11											33.0	17.0
12	GER	Toni Wilhelm	10	(12)	9											31.0	19.0
13	MEX	David Mier y Teran	14	7	(17)											38.0	21.0
14	RUS	Max Oberemko	12	10	(29) UFD											51.0	22.0
15	ISR	Nimrod Mashiah	(16)	11	14											41.0	25.0
16	CYP	Andreas Cariolou	(18)	13	12											43.0	25.0
17	ARG	Mariano Reutemann	13	(20)	15											48.0	28.0
18	DEN	Sebastian Fleischer	11	18	(29) UFD											58.0	29.0
19	CAN	Zachary Plavsic	(23)	14	18											55.0	32.0
20	KOR	Wonwoo Cho	17	15	(29) UFD											61.0	32.0
21	POR	João Rodrigues	21	(22)	13											56.0	34.0
22	USA	Carson Crain	22	(24)	16											62.0	38.0
23	JPN	Makoto Tomizawa	(20)	19	19											58.0	38.0
24	NOR	Sebastian Wang-Hansen	19	(21)	20											60.0	39.0
25	TPE	Hao Chang	24	(25)	21											70.0	45.0
26	EGY	Mohamed Elsafty	25	(26)	23											74.0	48.0
27	TUR	Pamir Sackan	(29) UFD	27	22											78.0	49.0
28	CHI	Eduardo Kretschmer	(29) DNF	28	24											81.0	52.0

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Total	Net
1	HKG	Hei Man H V Chan	(9)	3	1											13.0	4.0
2	POL	Malgorzata Bialecka	(3)	2	3											8.0	5.0
3	FRA	Charline Picon	1	(7)	6											14.0	7.0
4	NED	Lilian De Geus	2	6	(21) DSQ											29.0	8.0
5	ESP	Blanca Manchon	4	4	(5)											13.0	8.0
6	CHN	Manjia Zheng	5	(15)	4											24.0	9.0
7	RUS	Stefania Elfutina	6	5	(7)											18.0	11.0
8	ISR	Maayan Davidovich	(12)	11	2											25.0	13.0
9	BRA	Patricia Freitas	(21) DSQ	1	14											36.0	15.0
10	ITA	Flavia Tartaglini	8	(9)	9											26.0	17.0
11	EST	Ingrid Puusta	(11)	10	8											29.0	18.0
12	FIN	Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén	10	8	(11)											29.0	18.0
13	GBR	Bryony Shaw	7	14	(21) UFD											42.0	21.0
14	NOR	Maria Aadland Mollestad	(19)	12	12											43.0	24.0
15	MEX	Demita Vega de Lille	13	13	(21) DSQ											47.0	26.0
16	JPN	Yuki Sunaga	17	(20)	10											47.0	27.0
17	ARG	Maria Tejerina	14	(19)	13											46.0	27.0
18	USA	Farrah Hall	15	(17)	16											48.0	31.0
19	GRE	Angeliki Skarlatou	16	16	(21) UFD											53.0	32.0
20	TUR	Dilara Uralp	(18)	18	15											51.0	33.0