RS:X class at Sailing Worlds Aarhus 2018: Aarhus plays Joker as deck reshuffled
by Bas Edmonds, RS:X Class 6 Aug 2018 23:22 PDT
2-12 August 2018
RS:X class at Sailing Worlds Aarhus 2018 © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / Aarhus 2018
After such a thrilling and spectacular opening days racing, Aarhus played its joker and offered up a frustrating day on the water which ultimately saw only one race completed across the fleets. For the 85 men and 62 women covering 35 nations competing in the 2018 Sailing World Championships, today was a stark contrast which saw the fortunes of many change with the new conditions.
Following yesterdays abandoned race, which at the time of writing was subject to several claims for redress form competitors, the pressure was on the race committee to deliver in what proved to be the toughest day for race management of the competition so far. With one race less than the men, it was the women who were given the first crack at racing in the light 6-8 knot gradient breeze.
Within the fleet there were a number of sailors that had a chance to salvage their championship and climb up the leader board. Of those, Great Britain's Bryony Shaw was one who would be hoping for a less frustrating day out following opening scores of 26,15, and she achieved this by taking the race win in the blue fleet which propelled her up to 17th overall and was a massive boost to her confidence.
On today's racing, Shaw commented, "We got one race today which looks better than some of the other classes have managed. It was really patchy out there and very unstable but it was a good day for me and I managed to win the race. It's helped me bounce back up the results a little bit and I'm feeling a bit better about my prospects for the week now".
A sailor who was not enjoying the conditions as much was Polish sailor Maja Dziarnowska who after scoring a 2, 6 in the racing yesterday only managed a 27th today and has dropped down to 8th.
In the yellow fleet, the race win was taken by Lucie Belbeoch from France who now sits in second overall tied on points with China's Yunxiu Lu and Great Britain's Saskia Sills. This group are all on five points and sit on the shoulder of the overall leader Zofia Noceti-Klepacka from Poland who is one point ahead.
Belbeoch enjoyed today's conditions, "I like these conditions and it was a good fight with the Chinese team as they were 2nd, 3rd and 4th so it was a tough fight for the win. I have worked hard in all conditions so I am happy with my results this week."
On the upcoming French sailors Belbeoch commented, "We are three young girls from France and we are all training together lots of times. Of course we hope to challenge Charline Picon (2016 Olympic Champion) to represent France in 2020 and we will see if the new generation will be able to do so".
As the wind dropped off the women were sent ashore and the waiting game started for the men before the race committee finally decided to can racing at 1700 (local time). Racing will resume on Tuesday 7th August with the men scheduled to race at 1200 with the women at 1430. The forecast if for higher temperatures to return and the opportunity for a thermal breeze develop increases. Tuesday also represents the final opportunity for sailors to scramble up the rankings and secure their place in the Gold fleet, which will be split tomorrow if more there are more than four races in the series.
For complete results visit aarhus2018.sailing.org/results.