470 Men and Women Worlds - Vadlau and Ogar into pole position

by 470 International Association Class on 18 Sep 2014 Windy Wednesday didn't hold the breeze quite as forecast for the 470 Men and Women Worlds, with just two races held. Race 3 for the 470 Men blue fleet puts them on equal pegging with the yellow fleet, but still leaves the Men one race short of finishing the qualification series. In the 470 Women the Gold fleet managed one race, with the win propelling Austria's Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar into pole position.

The day kicked off with race 3 for the 470 Men blue fleet in around 20 knots of breeze, to get them on equal races with the yellow fleet. An on-water postponement for around an hour was pretty challenging, in the big breeze and big waves, as they waited for the Race Committee to set the course.

A useful win to Greece’s Panagotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) sees them leap up to third overall on the leaderboard.

Second place for Spain’s rising stars, and back to back 2013/2014 470 Junior World Champions, Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp marked a career best race result in senior fleet racing. With a leaderboard 19th place, the pair are now the highest placed home team after three races.

Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO) continued their run of consistency, finishing race 3 in third and move up to second overall. Whilst series leaders, Stuart McNay/David Hughes had a change of form, adding a 12th place finish to their otherwise perfect scoreline of two wins, but still retain pole position.

The blue fleet were then sent ashore, to the Spanish team’s relief, as Herp commented, 'We left our lunch in the boat park, so we were happy to come and eat!'

Although delighted with their second place, it was almost a race win for the Spanish, 'We started well, although the Greeks were better and had more pressure next to the Committee boat,' explained Herp. 'We were next to the pin, where there was a bit less pressure, but we managed to go faster than the guys next to us, tacked and crossed, and were in the top three by the first mark.'

They headed upwind in a close pack with the Greeks and Croatians, passing both to take the lead from the second upwind leg and extended. Onto the last leg to the finish, and the Croatians forced the Spanish up on the reach, giving the opening for the Greeks to sail through and take the win. Regardless a really promising result for the young Spaniards.

After a brief break ashore the 470 Yellow and Blue fleets were sent back out to the race track, but the wind failed to deliver so no more racing. The pressure is now on high intensity as we go into Thursday's race day five, with only three races completed and just two more days left to wrap up the qualification series and get the Gold and Silver fleet racing underway, before Medal Race day on Saturday. After race 4, the top 37 teams will advance to Gold fleet and the other 37 to Silver.

The 470 Men Yellow fleet warning signal is scheduled for 1100 hours on Thursday 18 September, followed by the 470 Blue fleet, after which the fleets will be sent ashore. Final series racing is scheduled to get underway with a warning signal at 1600 hours and races 5 and 6 scheduled for both the Gold and Silver fleets. All racing will be on Murimar Course.

470 Men - Provisional Results after Race 3
1. Stuart Mcnay/David Hughes (USA 1713) - 2 pts
2. Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO 83) - 5 pts
3. Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis (GRE 1) - 6 pts
4. Nicolas Charbonnier/Achille Nebout-Javal (FRA 7) - 6 pts
5. Sofian Bouvet/Jérémie Mion (FRA 27) - 7 pts
6. Guillaume Pirouelle/Sipan Valentin (FRA 76) - 8 pts
7. Francesco Rebaudi/Matteo Ramian (ITA 99) - 9 pts
8. Luke Patience/Elliot Willis (GBR 863) - 9 pts
9. Matteo Pilati/Francesco Rubagotti (ITA 27) - 10 pts
10. Tetsuya Matsunaga/Yugo Yoshida (JPN 12) - 10 pts

The 470 Women Gold Fleet were anticipating some big breeze conditions for today’s races 5 and 6, but by the time they got out on the race track and started just before 1600 hours, the conditions had eased and were much lighter than expected.

It was a tight race 5,with under 20 seconds separating the top three teams. Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar nailed the win, just ahead of Brazil’s Renata Decnop/Isabel Swan, chased by Japan’s Ai Kondo Yoshida/Miho Yoshioka in third. The Austrians now leap to the top of the leaderboard with a seven point margin over the world number one pairing of Camille Lecointre/Helene Defrance in second, and the 2012 Olympic silver medallists Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark in third.

Reigning Olympic and World Champions Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL) sit in fifth place. As the only team in the Gold fleet counting an all top 10 scoreline of keeper results, they are just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on the teams ahead who all carry double-digit scores in their race series.

No race 6, as the breeze eased even more and destabilized, forcing the Race Committee to abandon racing for the day.

Decnop/Swan are one of the Brazilian 470 teams in contention for selection to represent their nation in Rio 2016. Swan has been there before, securing the 470 bronze medal with former helm Fernanda Oliveira. The pair moved into new partnerships after the Beijing Olympics, with Oliveira and crew Fernanda Barbachan going on to secure Brazil’s 470 Class ticket to the 2012 Olympics. Now the two teams are up against each other for Rio 2016.

Oliveira/Barbachan sit three points ahead of Decnop/Swan on the leaderboard in 11th place, 'It is not about finishing ahead here. I like our qualification system which pushes us always to be on the top and best the best we can. I would just like the decision on which team to be made as soon as possible so the team selected can then focus on their Olympic preparation and not the trials.'

For Japan’s Ai Kondo Yoshida, today’s third place finish underlined her decision to return to the Olympic fray as the team moved into the leaderboard top 10. Kondo Yoshida has notched up appearances at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics, then took a year out to consider her competitive future.

'I have won some events, but never got a top result at the Olympics and that is a driving factor,' she said. 'After taking some distance from competition, I just realised how much I love sailing and just wanted to be back.'

Kondo Yoshida’s Olympic campaign number three sees a new partnership with Miho Yoshioka, in a balance of experience and youth. Yoshioka is a decade younger than her helm and knows she has plenty to learn. 'I am very excited and lucky to team up with Ai,' said Yoshioka. 'But our experience is very different as Ai is a top sailor and super sailor, so I feel the pressure on my shoulders to match that experience.'

In what can only be fate, crew Yoshioka’s first name Miho means 'beautiful sail' in Japanese. Keeping it in the family, Kondo Yoshida is married to 2012 Olympian and 470 crew Yugo Yoshida.

The 470 Women Gold fleet warning signal is scheduled for 1200 hours on Thursday 18 September with races 6, 7 and 8 planned and races 5, 6 and 7 for the Silver fleet. All racing will be on Murimar Course.

470 Women - Provisional Results after Race 5
1. Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar (AUT 431) - 9 pts
2. Camille Lecointre/Hélène Defrance (FRA 9) - 16 pts
3. Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR 118) - 17 pts
4. Michelle Broekhuizen/Marieke Jongens (NED 6) - 17 pts
5. Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL 75) - 18 pts
6. Anne Haeger/Briana Provancha (USA 1712) - 19 pts
7. Tina Mrak/Veronika Macarol (SLO 64) - 20 pts
8. Maëlenn Lemaitre/Aloïse Retornaz (FRA 39) - 21 pts
9. Shasha Chen/Haiyan Gao (CHN 619) - 23 pts
10. Ai Kondo Yoshida/Miho Yoshioka (JPN 1) - 24 Event website