World Cup Series Hyeres – Kaynar and Heiner to battle for gold

by Robert Deaves on 29 Apr 2017 Hyeres saved its best until last with two great races in fantastic conditions to wrap up the opening series. Again, Turkey’s Alican Kaynar ruled the day with a second and a first to go into the medal race with a 10-point advantage.

The only person who can now take gold away from Kaynar is Nicholas Heiner from the Netherlands, who remains in second. The winner of the first race of the day, Great Britain’s Ed Wright, climbed all the way up to third.

The day was defined by an onshore 10-15 knots with clear blue skies and waves large enough to allow the sailors to have lots of fun downwind. Both races were started under black flag after a general recall.

Race nine was controlled and dominated by Wright. Coming into the top from the middle left, he extended away for a comfortable victory. Second round the top mark was Australia’s Rob McMillan, who started at the boat and headed out right before almost crossing the fleet. But for the fact that he nearly fell out of the boat half way up he could have been leading at the top. Third round was Kaynar, who was soon in second, while Heiner moved up to third, and they chased each other round the course to finish in that order.

The fleet all flicked onto port soon after the start of Race 10 with Croatia’s Nenad Bugarin leading round the top from Kaynar and Norway’s Anders Pedersen. While Kaynar cruised through for a third race win, the fast Hungarian Zsombor Berecz, who has not had the easiest week, took second in front of Pedersen.

A seventh from Wright moves him up to third, but the points are very close for the bronze medal. Poland s ever-happy Piotr Kula is fourth after another consistent day while France’s Jonathan Lobert and Brazil’s Jorge Zarif also had good days to stay in contention. With Great Britain’s Ben Cornish, leader for the first two days, having another difficult day, and dropping to seventh, he still has medal potential but it won’t be easy with this competition.

The medal race line up is:

Results after 10 races

1 TUR 21 Alican Kaynar 32.00
2 NED 89 Nicholas Heiner 42.00
3 GBR 11 Edward Wright 61.00
4 POL 17 Piotr Kula 65.00
5 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 66.00
6 BRA 109 Jorge Zarif 70.00
7 GBR 91 Ben Cornish 72.00
8 NOR 1 Anders Pedersen 76.00
9 HUN 40 Zsombor Berecz 83.00
10 FIN 218 Tapio Nirkko 97.00