Italian Women lead 470 Worlds - Day 2

by Clare Murray/Sail-World on 25 Jan 2008 470 Women's

Dutch 470 Women’s world champions Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhoutedged one step closer to a fourth consecutive crown today at the Sail Melbourne event being raced out of Mordialloc Sailing Club.

De Koning/Lobke have nosed their way into second position overall on 12 points, following three more qualifying races on Day 2 of competition.

Regatta organizers, fearing a lack of wind tomorrow, threw in a third previously unscheduled race late this afternoon, allowing the affable Dutch crew to bump Aussie contenders Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson out of second place by one point.

Italian fliers Guila Conti and Giovanna Micol continue to lead the fleet, with another outstanding performance on the water.

Conti and Micol teamed a win in Race 1 yesterday, with another in Race 5 today, to sit three points clear on top of the table.

Following the five races, all crews have now dropped their worst result, allowing Rechichi and Parkinson to shed a ninth placing from today’s final race, one which they would probably prefer to forget.

“It’s good to have a solid start – it’s hard mentally but it’s completely do-able to come back from a bad first day but it’s hard mentally, so it’s good to have a good first few days,' the petite Rechichi said.

“Today wasn’t brilliant but it was certainly solid enough … in the third race we had an okay start but then I think we almost sailed to the Antarctica.

“We went way left, which is not what we normally do but we lost our opportunity to go back to the right … we couldn’t tack and then when we could tack the wind had shifted and it was too late, so we just had to be patient.

“It was either going to be a brilliant move or horrid and unfortunately it was horrid,” she added.

Japanese crew Ai Kondo and Kamata Naoko have elevated themselves into contention after dropping a 19th placing in Race 1 and backing it up with four solids finishes to be in fourth place overall on 16 points.

470 Men

Gabrio Zandora/Andrea Trani (ITA) are still leading the regatta on nine points after the second say of racing.

'Today we had really good speed but the main problem as that we made several bad tactical choices,' Zandora said.

Asher/Willis (GBR) are second overall followed by Rogers/Glanfield (GBR) in third.

A controversy surrounding Great Britain’s Olympic sailing team has become a joke among their 470 sailors competing at the world championships at Mordialloc Sailing Club.

According to UK paper, The Guardian, the Chinese secret police have interrogated Stephan Park, racing manager of the Royal Yachting Association, over alleged 'illegal meteorological surveys' in Qingdao the venue for the sailing at this year's Olympics.

When asked about the incident Nick Rogers joked, 'Well it's not very nice for Stephan Park'.

It was suggested the Chinese officials targeted Great Britain, believing they were one of the biggest threats in the lead up to the Olympics.

'It's a confident booster really' Elliot Willis said with a grin.

Out on the water, however the boys are more serious.

'There isn't much in it between the winners' Rogers said.

'We're happy how we're sailing,' Willis said.

“We're getting a nice change in conditions. We like to get a mixture. We're a jack-of-all-trades.'

Aussie champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page are back in 12th place on 41 points with a current drop of 17 (6,3,12,3,17).

They are behind the Russian team of Artem Basalkin and Alexander Zybin on countback, the Russian's having a drop of 16.

Racing will resume tomorrow at 13.00 hours.