470 Qualifying Series finalised

by 470 Class Association on 11 Jul 2007 The last race of qualifiers was completed today in the 470 Class at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in a strong breeze and building waves.

Today was scheduled as a reserve day, but because winds were too strong for sailing yesterday, it was decided to finalize the qualifiers today with only one race to reach the minimum amount of five races to divide the fleets into Gold, Silver and Bronze and to continue the Championships with the Final series.

Racing should start at 16:20 for the 470 Men and at 17:00 for the 470 Women, but because of a delay of other classes in race areas 4 and 5, racing was postponed for both the Men’s and Women’s fleets, which gave the late afternoon wind enough time to develop into a very strong over 20 knots breeze.

Many sailors lost control over their boats when heavy gusts came in, and especially on the reach, a lot of them capsized.

After five races also discards have become effective, and with today’s latest results, the leaderboard shows many changes.

470 MEN

Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE from Australia were the predicted leaders for today, and so they were. In today’s race they fought a tight battle with Croatia’s Sime FANTELA and Igor MARENIC, who managed to keep in front of them in a major part of the race which they finally lost to cross the finish line second.

Great Britain’s Nick ROGERS and Joe GLANFIELD sailed an excellent race today and crossed the finish line in third position. In yesterday’s heavy wind gusts they broke their mast and could not finish the race. After discard of their unfortunate result of yesterday’s last race, they climb to a second place overall.

Dutch brothers Sven and Kalle COSTER seem to do very well in this Championship event. After a spin-out on the rudder and capsizing they recover during today’s race, to finish as sixth, sufficient to go into the finals in a third overall position.

470 WOMEN.

Dutch 470 Women Marcelien DE KONING and Lobke BERKHOUT seem to get stronger every day in this Championship and score a bullet in today’s heavy conditions.

Also Therese TORGERSON and Vendela ZACHRISSON from Sweden win the race in their group and they seem to develop themselves as most serious opponents of the Dutch, with whom they share the fortunate position of still having the discard joker in their pockets.

Great Britain’s Christina BASSADONE and Saskia CLARK and Ingrid PEITJEAN and Nadege DOUROUX (FRA) return in leading positions after today’s races. Dutch Athens 2004 Olympic Regatta competitor Lisa WESTERHOF, who has teamed up with Europe Class sailor Merel WITEVEEN, join the group after scoring their third second place in this Championship.

Although leaders start to emerge at this Championship event, the minor difference of points within the top 15 shows that during this Championship there still will be a lot to play for.

The final series will start tomorrow, and racing resumes with the 470 Men’s fleet split up into Gold, Silver and Bronze, the 470 Women’s fleet into Gold and Silver, based on the results of the qualifying series.

For full results, please visit the event web site http://www.cascaisworlds2007.com/