Gladwell's Line: Accolades and angst at Sailing World Champs
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 15 Aug 2018 02:07 PDT
15 August 2018
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (NZL) 49er FX - Day 8 - Hempel Sailing World Championships, Aarhus, Denmark - August 2018 © Sailing Energy / World Sailing
The most significant Olympic classes regatta outside of the Olympics proper ended on a wet windless note on Sunday.
The Nacra 17 Medal Race had promised much.
What should have been the Grand Finale of the Hempel Sailing World Championships at Aarhus, Denmark, didn't happen.
Just a single point separated the first two competitors, and the third was just two points further back. In a replay of the Rio 2016 Medal Race, all three medals were set to be decided in the double point scoring Finale at Aarhus.
Would Nathan Outteridge, America's Cup helmsman and Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist in the 49er, be able to win the world title in the Nacra 17 in just his third international regatta and sailing with his sister?
Would 2016 Olympic Gold medalist Santi Lange be able to pull another come from behind performance as he did after being penalised twice in the Medal race in Rio?
Or would Italy's Ruggero Tita, who had regained control of the regatta and was the points leader be able to hold out the other two?
To keep then all honest the Rio Silver medalist, Jason Waterhouse was back in the fleet in 6th but and unrecoverable 20pts off the lead.
Topping it all was the prospect of seeing the fully foiling version of the Nacra 17 in action in a high-stakes race. Would the class deliver, or would the foiling phenomenon be no more of a TV spectacle than any of the other nine classes?
We'll never know because rain and a dying breeze caused the final race to be postponed and then abandoned completely.
An adverse weather forecast the previous day, triggered the cancellation of the Kiteboarding Medal races - which were to have been a real point of interest with this regatta given that the class is set to be anointed in November as a Mixed Relay event - whatever that means, for the 2024 Olympic Sailing Regatta.
Also missed from the TV coverage was the incredible sight of the Finn fleet being hit by a thundersquall on Day 7 of the series. The same as happened on the ocean course with the spectacular 470 racing on Day 4 of the Rio Olympics.
Given the above, Aarhus was not the sailing spectacle that it should have been.
It will be remembered for the fact that it went off with Scandinavian efficiency - no mean feat with such an enormous fleet.
The Hempel Sailing World Championships at Aarhus, Denmark were a huge step forward for the sport with the improved television coverage which was the best coverage of any inshore regatta to date. America's Cup included. Part of that was the use of drones for the first time in a regatta of this significance, giving some great close ups of the competitors in action - and without the irritating premature cut-aways - that have been a feature of most regatta coverage in the past.
The commentary standard went up several notches aided by a great positioning and analysis and reporting system from SAP/Sail Track, coupled with an expert commentator who could quickly read the SAP/Sail Track system - interpret what was happening, then clearly explain it to the audience within seconds - and get it right first time. That is an incredible talent and skill, helped no doubt by the SAP/Sail Track system - and what a difference it made.
The question now is whether this style and standard of coverage will be carried onto the Olympics - or whether Sailing will be told how the coverage will be done by the IOC's host broadcaster.
If so, then the Sport will wear the consequences of that coverage quality for the next four years, triggering the nonsensical comments that the way to "fix" sailing and make it more "media friendly" is by bringing in different classes, monkeying around with events and running with the latest brain-explosions from within World Sailing.
Aarhus killed off all that nonsense - proving that the current classes and events are just fine - given a better television treatment. Had we got the promised finale of Nacra 17 Medal race, and the Finn maelstrom from Day 7 as part of the live coverage, there would have been few complaints about any aspect of Aarhus.
Overlooked by most commentators was the low entry in the Women's Kiteboarding event - it only attracted only 11 competitors in what was an Open entry event. Just five competed in the 2017 World Championships in Oman.
Simply put, it is not a credible position to anoint with Olympic status, any class that has such poor sailor support.
At the end of this year, World Sailing will have to backtrack on its previous decisions made regarding the introduction of Kiteboarding. Aarhus showed that Kiteboarding is no more spectacular - nor does it make better TV images - than any of the existing events.
Recriminations and beatings begin
There was almost universal anguish after the regatta across the so-called developed sailing nations – due to their medal success being less than expectations.
The Dutch were happy - having topped the regatta medal-list with three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze. France was second with four, and in a tie for third between Australia, Germany, Japan and Great Britain on two each - with the tiebreaker going in favour of 2020 Host nation Japan - the only one of the two-medal group with a Gold Medal.
The hard-luck prize goes to New Zealand for being the only medal-less country to have lost a bronze medal on a tie-break (Josh Junior in the Finn class).
The Jacinda prize goes to Charline Picon (FRA) for being the best-placed medal winner to have given birth between the 2016 Olympics (where she won the Women's RS:X), and Aarhus two years later.
The First Family prize goes to the Bridge family for mother Steph (GBR) placing 4th in the Women's Kiteboard, and siblings Guy placing 3rd along with his brother Oliver finishing 7th, in the Mens Kiteboard.
Coach of the Regatta is Aaron McIntosh (NZL) for being the coach of two Dutch sailors - the Gold Medal winner and Silver Medal winner in the Men's RS:X. (Japan with a Gold and Silver in the Mens and Women's 470 may have also achieved the same, if they used the same coach.)
In the Kiteboards, the Mens event had just two nations represented in the top eight - FRA (5) and GBR (3). Scoring on a low points basis, France won the Gold medal for a Mixed Gender event. Steph Bridge (GBR) - who finished fourth paired up with one of her two sons who finished second in the Mens event. In fact she would also have made the medal podium sailing with her other son Oliver who finished seventh.
The fundamental issue with the female side of the Kiteboard event is that in Aarhus the regatta only attracted 11 competitors from nine countries. The Mens event attracted 65 entries.
The venerable Finn class which is being set up to exit the 2024 Olympics pulled 90 competitors and a further 350 for their Masters Worlds two months previously.
The Brits were castigated in their media for "only" winning two bronze medals.
US Sailing played up their Gold Medal win in the non-Olympic Womens Kiteboard. Read SailingIllustrated.com's Tom Ehman analysis on the US Sailing Team's performance at Aarhus
A former Executive Director of the then US Yacht Racing Union, Ehman doesn't hold back.
Surprisingly US Sailing didn’t mention the very creditable results they had achieved in the World Sailing Youth Worlds in 2018 and 2017 – where they finished first and third respectively in the Nations Trophy – excellent for this measure of youth program performance. And two years in a row is a clear sign of class.
If they play their cards right this US talent stream should be coming online quite nicely in 2024 and for the home Olympic Regatta in 2028 - and a repeat of the Glory Days of 1984 in Long Beach. Or, will the turkeys vote for an early Thanksgiving?
Part of “playing their cards right” is not being stupid enough to go along with World Sailing’s proposal to change seven of the ten Olympic events for 2024, and who knows what for 2028. The wholesale event change doesn’t fit with the current class progression from Youth Worlds to Olympic sailing. The Olympic status quo is in the best interests of US, and on the basis of "America First" US Sailing should be trumpeting this line.
Or in baseball parlance, the US has all the talent bases loaded, now US Sailing just have to hit a home run to realise the their opportunity.
Kiwis enter the Confessional
Yachting New Zealand was more sanguine in its final media report addressing the no-medals from Aarhus issue in the first line.
YNZ correctly identified that the primary objective at this regatta was to qualify for as many 2020 Olympic places as possible - with Aarhus being the first 2020 Olympic Qualification opportunity. Six 2020 places was apparently the NZ target, and was achieved.
The Brits were quick to point out that they were the only country to qualify in all ten events. In 2014, three countries achieved this feat. – Britain, France and New Zealand.
Not surprisingly that reflection to Santander was missing from the YNZ commentary. Having won ten places in the first round of Qualification, New Zealand only nominated in seven events for the 2016 Olympics - and was the country who turned down the most places. That was a set-back for the three classes - RS:X Men, RS:X Women's and Laser Radial.
Also missing from the various commentaries was the fact that overall Olympic entry numbers have dropped from 380 in 2016 to 350 for 2020 in Tokyo. Coupled with that reduction the numbers of qualifying places have fallen from being 50% of the places in 2014 for the 2016 Olympics to 40% in 2018 for the 2020 Olympics. In hard numbers, that adjustment means that the available places have dropped from 190 in 2014 at Santander, to 140 in 2018 in Aarhus.
In comparing 2018 with the 2014 SWC, while the Kiwis qualified in all ten classes in Santander, (helped by the bigger Olympic quota), New Zealand just slid inside the cut-off on several classes.
One of those was the 49er FX (Alex Maloney and Molly Meech), who just squeaked inside the 2016 Olympic Qualification in Santander, but went onto win the Silver Medal in Rio and came with an ace of winning the Gold, in what was the cliff-hanger race of the Rio Olympics.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the elephants in the 49er room at Aarhus. Few would have bet against these two for a medal, if not a Gold in the 49er. That is not to detract from the excellent results of the other Kiwis in the 49er class, but Burling and Tuke are definitely the Gold standard of Olympic sailing. And those who score this regatta in terms of medal success must factor in Burling and Tuke's absence from Aarhus.
Also remember that the Olympics have smaller fleets, less depth (in that multiple competitors from one country are not permitted). So the Dutch Gold-Silver in the Mens RS:X can't be repeated. The smaller size of the Olympics generally suits the less process-orientated teams.
Further, Aarhus is quite different water from Sagami Bay, Japan. Aarhus is semi-landlocked with a climate driven by the Scandinavian and European land mass. Sagami Bay is open ocean, bordered by land on one side only. That should suit many sailors, the Kiwis in particular, who can only really train on the open sea and ocean courses.
Being sat on your backside at this stage of an Olympic campaign, as has happened to the Kiwis and a few others, does no harm either. Expect the medal-less teams to get back up quickly after this minor fall.