420 World and Ladies World Championships Open Day 2

by International 420 Class Association on 27 Jul 2013 420 World and Ladies World Championships Open second day of competition saw a top performance from Chile’s Nadja Horwitz/Carmina Malsch in the 420 Ladies securing them two race wins, whilst best performance of the day in the 420 Open went to Spain’s José Manuel Ruiz/Fernando Davila who scored a 2,3.

Fleets were postponed ashore waiting for the wind to materialize, before racing got underway mid-afternoon averaging about 8 knots, but fluctuating between 6-10 knots with the scheduled 2 races completed for all fleets.

Before heading out to race, all teams, coaches and officials gathered at midday around the half-staff flags on the Championship flagpole to respect a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the train crash in Galicia, Spain.

420 Open
Pocketing a win in race three pushed Italy’s Gianmaria Caiconti/Edoardo Portoraro briefly into top spot on the leaderboard, before Brazil’s overnight leaders Tiago Brito/Andrei Kneipp fought back to claim the leader’s yellow bibs going into day three. Moving up into third overall on the leaderboard are Spain’s José Manuel Ruiz/Fernando Davila who shift up from fifth yesterday.

Hard to believe that the ISAF Youth Worlds were the first international 420 event for Japan’s Ibuki Koizumi/Tsubasa Arioka who finished fourth in Cyprus and so far are fourth on the leadboard in the 420 Open fleet, after posting two more top 10 results today. The pair have been sailing a 420 together for 18 months and have got very good very quickly, which they put down to many years experience racing on the Optimist and Flying Junior pathway.

'We are lightweight, so the conditions are great for us,' said Koizumi, 'but it is very difficult out there.' With a big smile, he concluded, 'We want to achieve a medal here.'

Different winners for each race across the three fleets, including the USA’s Will Logue/Drew Lorenz who were stoked with their win in race three, although popped out further back to finish 26th in race four.

'We were really excited with that result. This is my second World Championship and first in the 420, having previously gone to an Opti Worlds. We have been in the 420 six months together and are happy with today and feel that we can only improve from hereon.' Commenting on the their approach to the race, Logue added, 'It wasn’t too tough as we could see the wind was going to go left so started as the first boat at the pin and came out at a really nice speed and came across the middle and did 4 or 5 tacks to round the windward mark in second, with the Japanese just in front of us.'

Clearly an admirer of the Japanese pair, Logue added, 'They are really good and really strong downwind. The Brazilian team are really, really good too – I don’t think we will be catching them though,' before concluding, 'any team in this fleet could win a race.'

To ensure a high quality of racing, entries at the 420 Worlds are limited to seven teams per nation in each of the Open and Ladies events, and 14 per event for the host nation. Most teams have had to advance through a strict national selection criteria to qualify to the 420 Worlds, ensuring the best of the best young sailors are facing each other on the race course.

420 Ladies – Leaderboard Top 10
1. Carlotta Omari/Francesca Russo Cirillo (ITA) – 10 pts
2. Paula Barceló/Margarita Alba (ESP) – 11 pts
3. Nadja Horwitz/Carmina Malsch (CHI) – 21 pts
4. Sara Scotto Di Vettimo/Vittoria Barbiero (ITA) – 24 pts
5. Kimberly Lim/Savannah Siew (SIN) – 25 pts
6. Annabel Cattermole/Brioin Bennett Yoid (GBR) – 26 pts
7. Carmen Davila/Julia Davila (ESP) – 27 pts
8. Karen Yohana Simoni/Aurora Migani (ITA) – 36 pts
9. Ilaria Paternoster/Benedetta di Salle (ITA) – 42 pts
10. Marta Garrido/Marta Rodriguez (ESP) – 42 Overall results