Semaine Olympique Francaise - Day 3

by Aurélia Filho and the Sail-World team on 9 Oct 2015 Day 3 of the Semaine Olympique Francaise in La Rochelle marked a change on the sailing area, waking up with a small breeze and under a shining sun. The first races kicked off at 11 a.m. with a small breeze fluctuating around five knots, which completely dropped off in the middle of the day. Fortunately, the wind rose again in the middle of the afternoon, and all of the series were rushed back to sea, to chase out the best spot on the ranking, keeping in mind the Medal Races on Saturday, reuniting the top 10, open to all eight Olympic series.

RS : X Men & Women
In the Men’s category, the head of the podium goes from one French to another. The Young Benoit Bigot, first day leader is back on top of the ranking in front of Ogo de L’Hermite, in second position. English Samuel Sills completes this podium. Let’s point out the French Arnaud Billet, for his great achievement with a perfect day (3rd – 1st - 1st).

Arnaud Billet (FRA) – Seventh on the leaderboard: « It was quite a good day for me, with three good races, I had good speed and a good feeling on the water, I often choose the good side. On the first race, I made a mistake which cost me first place, as a result I was quite determined in the two other races. We came back ashore after the first race, I had time to recharge my batteries, and go back full strength on the two last ones. I’m satisfied with my performance. I am aiming at the podium here, I was the runner-up of France last year, so I really would like to at least stay on the same position. I know this sailing area, I trained well for it so I was quite at ease. »

Three races were contested today by the women, and it still is the French Delphine Jariel at the head of the fleet. US competitor Farrah Hall entered the podium today in second position (7th – second – third) while the Dutch Sara Wennekes takes over the third place by winning today’s last race.

Nacra 17
The Nacra 17, new Olympic class for Rio’s games, started their two races in the middle of the afternoon. The Spanish Iker Martinez and Julia Rita took the victory in both races, accordingly taking the second place on the podium. The French Billy Besson and Marie Riou, already ahead yesterday, retain their first place (2nd - 2nd). The duo Moana Vaireaux and Manon Audinet now fill the third place of the podium.

Marie Riou and Billy Besson (FRA) – Head of the leaderboard: « Only 10 are doing this regatta, which is not a lot, but does make a Medal Race configuration, which allows us to prepare and train on our starts. We have done six races so far, a very good way to work out on our performances. We do have competition here with the Spanish and Danish here. Today we did two races in a very unstable wind, but it stayed interesting. »

49er / 49er FX
After the two races of the day, the top four are tight on the leaderboard. The English duo Dylan Fletcher and Alan Sign are at the head of the podium, tied with Julien D’Ortoli and Noé Delpech. Another English duo completes the podium, Stephen Morrison and Edward Powis, a point more than the Franch Emmanuel Dyen and Stéphane Christidis. Tomorrow is going to be crucial in this class which is always quite spectacular.

Alain Sign and Sylan Fletcher (GBR) – Head of the leaderboard:« Bit up and down today, pretty tricky conditions especially in that last one were the gusts were coming out of the shore, and it was quite tricky to spot them out, and it makes it quite tense with the boats duking and taking around each other but… it made for good racing. It’s our first time in La Rochelle, we’ve been sailing the boat for at least eight years now and I think this is like the first time in our program we could actually get some good boats together and race before our World Championship. Yesterday for example was good training for us as we might face the same conditions in Argentina. Our goal here is to win hopefully! Why not eat up the French? (laughter)

No changes in the ladies category, with the French Sarah Steyaert and Aude Compan, followed by Lili Sebesi and Julie Bossard in second and Marie Soler and Albane Dubois in third.

Aude Compan and Sarah Steyaert (FRA) – Head of the leaderboard: « As there are only three 49ers FX on this competition, we race with the boys. As a result, there are 25 others on line and our goal is to rehearse our starts, with the density there is, it’s great! The main purpose is to stay as long as possible with the boys, and why not kick them out if we can! Today we were quite good at this game, we stayed in quite some time. After the SOF we’re heading back to Marseille, rest a bit, then training before flying off to Buenos Aires, our World’s start there on November 16th. »

Finn
Four races were raced in the Finn class today. The Swedish Max Salminen, who left quite an impression yesterday by controlling the three races, stands on a solid day (2nd – 2nd), keeping his leader position. Pioggi Giorgi keeps his second place and the French Fabien Pic, of the Société des Régates Rochelaises, joins the top three after winning the two races today.

Laser standard / Laser radial
Jean-Baptiste Bernaz is still in control of the competition, far away in front of the fleet. He continues with a steady day (2nd and 4th). Alessio Spadoni takes the second place while Russian Sergey Komissarov goes done to third place.

Alessio Spadoni (ITA) – Third on the leaderboard: « My day went quite well, with a light unstable wind, I managed to get good results. Could have been better but I’m quite happy. It’s my second time here in La Rochelle, I came here in 2013 for the first edition, it really is a great place to sail, because you can experience all type of conditions, and that’s the interesting part. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz is really getting ahead of all of us in the ranking, he is really good. Second place is going to be really hard to get to so I am aiming for the second place »

The Radials only sailed one race today. No surprise here, the Danish Anne-Marie Rindom stayed on top of the ranking. The gap between her and her pursuers, French Mathilde de Kerangat and Spanish Alicia Cebrian keeps getting wider.

Longtze on the start
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the competition for the Longtze. These sport keelboats are vivid and fast when upwind and hover in downwind thanks to their light hull propelled by a powerful sail on a carbon mast of 11.5 meters.

This isn’t an Olympic class. This is its first year at this event. It was invited in light of the Longtze World Event.

The Competitors will start in the SOF at 11 a.m. tomorrow.