ILCA Vilamoura European Continental Qualification - Overall
by Jon Emmett 24 Apr 22:15 PDT
19-24 April 2021
As forecast, the final day of the regatta saw the strongest winds of the championships with waves that wanted to literary pick you up and take you downwind... Not very helpful when you were trying to go upwind!
A fantastic Championships with varied conditions and a Gold fleet pretty much matching the fleet we expect to see in Tokyo 2020[one].
ILCA 6
Danish sailor Anne-Marie Rindom DEN won the regatta in style, winning with a race to spare with a bullet in race 11, meaning she could return to shore early. Race 12 was won by Mari Erdi HUN making up for the disappointment of 2 DSQs on the previous day.
Also on the podium were Josefin Olsson SWE and Manami Doi JPN both ones to watch at the Olympic games.
Chasing the podium places were Basileia Carahaliou GRE, Tuula Tenkanen FIN, Emma Plasschaert BEL and Alison Young GBR on places fourth to seventh.
Maud Jayet SUI, Monika Mikkola FIN and Paige Railey USA completed the overall top ten. A top ten here was enough for Maud to complete the Swiss country criteria to be sent to the Olympic games.
ILCA 7
Day 6 and reigning World Champion Philipp Buhl grabbed the bull by the horns with a 2, 1 scoreline. Revelling in the "levant wind" making it three top 3s in the last three races of Gold fleet allowing him to edge out Robert Scheidt BRA for Gold by a single point. Micky Beckett GBR did enough to stay on the podium in bronze.
Other serious Olympic contenders finished this event just of the podium and will certainly seek to gain that final edge in the next 2 months. Those were Jean Baptiste Bernaz FRA, Tonci Stipanovic CRO, Elliot Hanson GBR and Charlie Buckingham USA, on places fourth to seventh overall all of which have been selected by the countries to go to Tokyo.
Filip Jurisic CRO, Joel Rodriguez Perez ESP and Jesper Stalheim SWE had also a great performance and completed the top ten on places eighth, nineth and tenth.
Two countries won the last Olympic places on the Men's class today. Joel Rodriguez from Spain and Duko Bos from the Netherlands were given the Olympic tickets after finishing in 9th and 11th overall positions respectively. Just 6 points from this goal was Italian Alessio Spadoni ITA on 14th. Surely the ILCA 7 is one of the toughest classes to make Olympic qualification in.
Full results can be found here.