ISAF Sailing Worlds, Santander - Aussies and Austrians claim 470 gold

by ISAF on 21 Sep 2014 Austria's Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar and Australia's Mat Belcher and Will Ryan stormed to gold in the Men's and Women's 470 as a capacity crowd watched the action unfold at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships.

The spectator Dune was packed with 2,500 to 3,000 sailing fans who watched Vadlau and Ogar claim their first world title and Belcher and Ryan claim their second together. The victory was special for Belcher as he made it five 470 world titles in a row.

After a slight delay to proceedings the Women's 470 got off in eight knots of breeze at 14:50 local time and were followed by the Men's 470 at 15:50.

Going into the Medal Race, Championship leaders Lara Vadlau and Jola Ogar (AUT) had to finish ahead of the London 2012 Olympic gold medallists Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) to secure the gold medal.

With a textbook perfect start, the Austrians claimed a clear lane, to put the lead in their hands and just over eighteen minutes later they crossed the finish line to become 2014 470 Women World Champions.

At the first upwind mark, it was Japan's Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka who were closest behind, rounding with just a four second gap to the Austrians, but Vadlau and Ogar's eyes were only on the Kiwis.

Downwind, the Austrians continued to extend their lead over the fleet, with only the British pair of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark punching through the pack to move up to second place and put in a challenge. Despite pushing hard, there was no change in positions and the two teams crossed the finish line with just five seconds between them, and holding almost a minute margin over the next team, Slovenia's Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol.

So World Championship gold in the bag, to add to the 470 European title they won in July this year. Just two years ago at the 2012 Olympics, Vadlau finished in last place, with Aleh and Powrie winning Olympic gold. Since, the Vadlau and Ogar partnership has delivered a meteoric climb upwards and today proved once again they have the courage, passion and a burning desire to be the best they can be.

'In the first upwind when we were close to the right layline and we saw this huge gust on the right side and I saw the Kiwis were left side and I said to Lara this is good because we have wind and they don't,' said Ogar as she relived the race. 'But we didn't get too excited and only when we rounded the downwind mark did we realise we could have it. But we still stayed focused and remembered the times when we have been leading a race and then lost first place because we were too relaxed,'

'We never win medal races,' laughed Ogar. 'Yes we won in Miami, but it was not such a strong fleet.'

'For this medal race I told Jola I will sail the wind and check the wind and you will keep your eyes on all the other boats,' said Vadlau. 'Yes, this is always our plan,' added Ogar. 'It works and if something is working, you shouldn't change it!'

'It is amazing, we are World Champions,' grinned Vadlau. 'You know I told Jola before the race that we must win it because I want to have a gold 470 on my mainsail,' she added referring to the right they have now earned themselves as World Champions.

For Aleh and Powrie it was effectively game over for gold within the first six minutes of the race, as they rounded the first mark in seventh and knew there was no hope of catching the Austrians. The 2013 World Champions' race was now all about ensuring they didn't let any more boats get between them and the British, to ensure they could keep hold of silver.

'From there, winning was out of the question. We just had to make sure we were close enough to the prints to make sure they couldn't get us,' commented Aleh. 'We just had to keep our composure on the next beat and take a few boats which we did, so that was some consolation.'

'It was a pretty tough race and the Austrians just did it really well. Good on them as they sailed a really good Worlds.

'We are getting there, but there is a lot to work on. I guess that's what good about these regattas, when it doesn't all go well we find more things to fix for next time. The Austrians are getting better and we all need to keep going. There is a lot we can do better,' Aleh concluded. A couple of weeks break at home, and Team Jolly will then be back in Rio in December 2014 for training.

The 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark sailed a perfect race, but were always too far behind on points to have a real shout at silver or gold. For them, securing the bronze medal was a pleasant surprise, as the pair still don't feel in prime performance mode, after both having injury set-backs earlier in the year.

'This is the ISAF Worlds, it is only once every four years, so it is a big deal and to come here and perform we are really happy,' said Mills. 'We put up a good fight all the way to the end with the Austrians, to try and clinch silver, but we just couldn't quite get passed them. But as it turned out, it didn't make a difference, because the Kiwi girls had managed to pull up enough to hold onto their silver. It was an exciting race all the way to the end.'

The gold medal was effectively a done deal going into the Medal Race for defending World Champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan from Australia. In theory Croatia's Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic could get their hands on claim gold, but in practice the chances of that happening were remote as the Croatians would need to win the Medal Race and the Aussies finish last.

In front of a home team, the reigning 470 Junior World Champions Jordi Xammar and Joan Herp led to the first windward mark, and controlled the race from start to finish. Whilst the Spaniards had no chance of a podium spot, they knew a win would put them up the leaderboard, but even more special was to win a Medal Race in front of a home crowd, including the eyes of the Spanish President.

Onto the second upwind leg and the Spanish and Australians split, each choosing a separate side of the gate. Advantage to the Spanish, but not such a good choice for the Australians who dropped back to fifth overall, but this was no worry for the Australians. Belcher and Ryan clawed one boat back to finish the medal race in fourth place and successfully secure their second World Championship title together, but Belcher's fifth successive World Championship title.

Celebrating his 32nd Birthday today, Belcher gave himself one of his most memorable presents by becoming the only sailor in 470 history to win five successive World Championship titles.

'It is really cool. Amazing. Now I can really celebrate. It is a shame my wife and son can't be here, but I will see them tomorrow. It is so cool and I didn't think we would be in this position. It says a bit about our personality too, that we went through that winning streak of two years and to keep focused on what we are doing. It doesn't really bother us or distract us. We are really just enjoying what we are doing and racing our competitors and having fun and that is the main thing to keep winning and keep performing.

'It has been so up and down here. We are really happy with how we have performed and it is nice to come away on top,' said Belcher.

Croatia's Fantela and Marenic went into the Medal Race in silver medal position, but as they found themselves back in eighth place at the windward mark things were not looking so good and they had lost the silver medal to the Greek team of Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis who were in fifth. The Croatians resolutely fought back, chipping their way up through the fleet to finish in sixth place, with the Greeks in fifth, and seal silver by a three point margin, with bronze to Greece.

The silver medal was the one colour missing from Fantela and Marenic's haul of medals, so now they count, one 470 World Championship gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

'It was very close, but it ended up very well for us with our fifth medal in a row and the only medal that we missed in our collection. Gold, three bronzes and finally one silver. We are very happy,' said Fantela. 'Today's medal race was quite tough as Mat and Will were keeping an eye on us more than expected, because there was theoretically an opportunity that we might beat them. During the race he tacked on us more than a few times. This was hard for us as we had to control the Greeks, so it was very tough until the finish.'

Mantis and Kagialis also sailed an incredibly strong series with all top-10 finishes apart from one 15th place in race 6.

'Our plan was to stay close to the British to ensure we could secure the bronze medal,' said Mantis. 'We had the option to get silver, we were close but I think everyone got what they deserved and we are all happy.'

Heading towards the finish, at the front of the pack the Spanish had to stay calm with the British and Americans hunting. But their lead was more than enough to win the race, with Luke Patience and Elliot Willis (GBR) finishing in second place and Stuart Mcnay and David Hughes (USA) in third. As the Spanish crossed the finish, the crowd on the Duna simply went wild, and Jordi held his head in disbelief at their achievement. Xammar and Herp couldn't quite take in the applause as they sailed in front of the Duna grandstand, before coming ashore by rib and in true superstar style worked their way through the spectators to massive applause.

470 Men Overall

 

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race										Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Net
1	AUS	AUS 11	Mathew Belcher William Ryan	(6)	5	4.3 RDG	2	1	1	1	1	2	8	31.30	25.30
2	CRO	CRO 83	Sime Fantela Igor Marenic	2	8	3	1	9	2	5	2	(21)	12	65.00	44.00
3	GRE	GRE 1	Panagiotis Mantis Pavlos Kagialis	9	5	1	2	4	(15)	3	4	9	10	62.00	47.00
4	GBR	GBR 863	Luke Patience Elliot Willis	12	3	6	3	(17)	5	7	10	1	4	68.00	51.00
5	USA	USA 1713	Stuart Mcnay David Hughes	1	1	12	(23)	2	8	21	16	7	6	97.00	74.00
6	JPN	JPN 12	Tetsuya Matsunaga Yugo Yoshida	6	4	7	8	3	6	(15)	14	8	18	89.00	74.00
7	ESP	ESP 44	Jordi Xammar Joan Herp	15	17	2	3	12	9	(26)	19	17	2	122.00	96.00
8	FRA	FRA 76	Guillaume Pirouelle Sipan Valentin	13	2	6	14	5	7	29	11	(32)	14	133.00	101.00
9	JPN	JPN 11	Kazuto Doi Kimihiko Imamura	13	12	5	1	20	(34)	10	15	3	22 OCS	135.00	101.00
10	RUS	RUS 5	Pavel Sozykin Denis Gribanov	10	15	8	11	(31)	3	13	5	23	16	135.00	104.00
11	FRA	FRA 27	Sofian Bouvet Jeremie Mion	1	11	5.3 RDG	4	7	16	23	28	(29)		124.30	95.30
12	NZL	NZL 2	Paul Snow-Hansen Daniel Willcox	14	4	20	15	(23)	20	4	8	13		121.00	98.00
13	AUT	AUT 3	Matthias Schmid Florian Reichsteaedter	11	3	22	13	(24)	4	12	9	24		122.00	98.00
14	SUI	SUI 16	Yannick Brauchli Romuald Hausser	21	23	16	5	10	(35)	2	18	6		136.00	101.00
15	SWE	SWE 349	Anton Dahlberg Fredrik Bergström	8	9	8	4	11	33	16	13	(38) DSQ		140.00	102.00
16	RUS	RUS 2	Mikhail Sheremetyev Maxim Sheremetyev	22	9	9	12	14	(30)	6	20	14		136.00	106.00
17	GER	GER 10	Ferdinand Gerz Oliver Szymanski	10	(28)	9	6	15	24	20	17	11		140.00	112.00
18	GER	GER 15	Julian Autenrieth Philipp Autenrieth	3	26	21	11	16	(27)	9	22	5		140.00	113.00
19	ITA	ITA 29	Simon Sivitz Kosuta Jas Farneti	26	11	11	7	8	22	(30)	3	25		143.00	113.00
20	FIN	FIN 7	Joonas Lindgren Niklas Lindgren	5	14	11	18	(29)	14	18	24	10		143.00	114.00

 

470 Women Overall

 

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race											Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Net
1	AUT	AUT 431	Lara Vadlau Jolanta Ogar	2	(11)	1	5	1	5	1	11	4	2	2	45.00	34.00
2	NZL	NZL 75	Jo Aleh Polly Powrie	(7)	5	6	2	5	1	4	2	3	5	12	52.00	45.00
3	GBR	GBR 118	Hannah Mills Saskia Clark	11	2	1	3	11	9	(14)	3	2	4	4	64.00	50.00
4	FRA	FRA 9	Camille Lecointre Hélène Defrance	3	5	4	4	(24)	10	6	4	5	15	8	88.00	64.00
5	SLO	SLO 64	Tina Mrak Veronika Macarol	4	11	14	1	4	(15)	12	5	6	8	6	86.00	71.00
6	NED	NED 6	Michelle Broekhuizen Marieke Jongens	4	13	3	1	9	7	9	(17)	10	6	10	89.00	72.00
7	USA	USA 1712	Anne Haeger Briana Provancha	14	7	2	3	7	4	2	6	(28) DNF	14	16	103.00	75.00
8	JPN	JPN 1	Ai Kondo Yoshida Miho Yoshioka	7	(25)	4	10	3	12	5	16	14	3	14	113.00	88.00
9	GBR	GBR 321	Christina Bassadone Eilidh McIntyre	16	(19)	3	5	12	2	8	13	12	1	18	109.00	90.00
10	NED	NED 216	Afrodite Kyranakou Anneloes van Veen	1	10	5	(17)	14	8	15	1	13	7	20	111.00	94.00
11	RUS	RUS 97	Alisa Kirilyuk Liudmila Dmitrieva	18	6	19	4	6	3	3	(22)	7	12		100.00	78.00
12	BRA	BRA 18	Renata Decnop Isabel Swan	17	14	9	6	2	(28) DNF	13	10	1	9		109.00	81.00
13	BRA	BRA 177	Fernanda Oliveira Ana Luiza Barbachan	1	3	16	(28) UFD	8	6	7	15	8	17		109.00	81.00
14	GBR	GBR 812	Anna Burnet Flora Stewart	9	12	17	8	15	13	10	(19)	9	13		125.00	106.00
15	CHN	CHN 619	Shasha Chen Haiyan Gao	6	9	2	6	(25)	18	19	21	20	11		137.00	112.00
16	CHN	CHN 616	Xiaomei XU Ping Zhang	6	3	21	7	13	11	11	(25)	16	25		138.00	113.00
17	POL	POL 11	Agnieszka Skrzypulec Natalia Wojcik	15	18	13	2	16	16	(22)	8	21	10		141.00	119.00
18	CHN	CHN 1261	Huimin Feng Lizhu Huang	5	1	14	12	23	17	(25)	9	15	23		144.00	119.00
19	FRA	FRA 39	Maëlenn Lemaitre Aloïse Retornaz	2	1	8	(28) DSQ	10	24	20	23	11	21		148.00	120.00
20	ESP	ESP 133	Marina Gallego Fatima Reyes	10	17	6	13	20	21	17	14	18	(26)		162.00	136.00

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