Wilmot and Page win at ISAF World Games

by Event Media/Sail-World on 21 May 2006 Racing in the Men’s 470 Medal Race got underway at 1200 UTC (1400 local time). By this time the breeze on Lkae Neusiedl had picked up to ten knots from the southwest.

World Champions Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE (AUS) had a five point lead over second place Benjamin BONNAUD and Romain BONNAUD (FRA), and right from the start the strategy of the Australians was clear - stop the French.

The Medal Race affectively became two races. The one for gold between the leading pair, and then the battle for bronze in which all eight other crews still were in with a chance. Spain’s Francisco SANCHEZ and Alejandro RAMOS held a narrow margin in third place going into the Medal Race, but with the points tight, whoever finished top from places three to six would gain the advantage, and the remaining four crews were also in with a shout if these four faltered.

An evenly spread start line saw the Aussies and French team line up in the middle, whilst SANCHEZ and RAMOS immediately went right up the windward-leeward course. The second French team of Vincent GAROS and Pierre LEBOUCHER (FRA) meanwhile chose left and it proved the wise decision as they rounded the first mark with a 30 second lead on the rest of the fleet, in what was to prove a race winning move.

Behind them things were tight, with a chasing pack of four just ahead of Sven COSTER and Kalle COSTER (NED) and then the leading Aussies. The Spaniards rounded second last and made little headway on the downwind, whilst fifth overall Dmitry BEREZKIN and Alexander ZYBIN (RUS) were now up to second and occupying the bronze medal spot on the water. Meanwhile WILMOT and PAGE had the BONNAUD brothers well under wraps and were now looking like certainties for gold.

The Spanish were forced to gamble on the second upwind and immediately headed out to the left in what was to prove a medal winning move. They caught a great shift and flew past the fleet rounding the top mark third and crucially ahead of the rest of the top six.

On the downwind however the COSTER brothers put the pressure on and were closing in fast towards the finish. Starting the day just two points off the bronze medal, if they could sneak past the Spaniard the final podium spot was theirs. The line approached and the gap narrowed, but SANCHEZ and RAMOS just held on and crossed the line in a flurry of punched fists and to cheers of congratulations from the crowd.

WILMOT and PAGE eventually crossed the line eighth, having successful held the BONNAUD brothers in check, to take the gold medal and add the ISAF World Sailing Games title to the World title they retained in San Francisco, USA last year.

Men's 470 Top Ten Results


Pos Nation Skipper Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 MR Pts

1 AUS Nathan WILMOT Malcolm PAGE 6 3 (12) 7 3 6.6 RDG 3 12 16 56.6

2 FRA Benjamin BONNAUD Romain BONNAUD 16 11 4 6 7 3 2 (19) 20 69

3 ESP Francisco SANCHEZ Alejandro RAMOS 12 18 1 3 13 (23) 16 6 6 75

4 RUS Dmitry BEREZKIN Alexander ZYBIN (33) DNF 10 22 2 6 2 14 14 8 78

5 FRA Vincent GAROS Pierre LEBOUCHER 19 13 (25) 10 8 9 11 9 2 81

6 NED Sven COSTER Kalle COSTER 2 2 3 16 (24) 17 19 11 12 82

7 JPN Kazuto SEKI Shoichi YANAGAWA (33) OCS 21 9 4 4 10 28 5 4 85

8 ARG Matias BUEHLER Marcos LAMAS 15 9 7 18 (26) 8 15 4 10 86

9 POL Patryk PIASECKI Marcin JOZEFOWSKI 17 12 2 8 22 4 4 (31) 18 87

10 ISR Gideon KLIGER Ehud GAL 5 4 21 (33) OCS 27 6 8 7 14 92