ILCA classes at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships - Day 7
by ILCA 19 Aug 2023 11:02 PDT
13-20 August 2023
2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships Day 7 © Suellen Hurling / Live Sail Die / ILCA
Two races were completed today at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships, and Australia's Tokyo gold medalist Matt Wearn has nearly claimed the title of 2023 ILCA 7 World Champion, the day before the final medal race.
Medal races will be live-streamed tomorrow, August 20, at 14:05 CEST for the ILCA 7s and 15:05 CEST for the ILCA 6s, with commentary from Olympic gold and bronze medalist Lijia Xu.
Today the racing began on time with the ILCA 7 gold fleet. After two general recalls, including a black-flag start, the men kicked off race 9 in about 6 knots with 2 knots of current. The ILCA 6 gold fleet followed with a clear start. The wind, fortunately, picked up for race 10, and the ILCA 7 fleet had a clear start in about 11-13 knots. However, the ILCA 6 fleet then had multiple general recalls and black flag starts as the breeze picked up to about 15-17 knots with waves and choppy conditions. Today's difficult conditions and starts made for very inconsistent scoring and some shakeups on the leaderboards.
On the ILCA 7 course, Wearn rose to the top, passing Great Britain's Michael Beckett, who had been leading the fleet all week. In race 9, Wearn finished in 25th while Beckett had a beautiful second-place finish. So for race 10, Wearn kept his eye on Beckett and finished with a 65th ahead of Beckett in 66th. Fortunately, for Wearn, he could drop his 65th, but Beckett's drop was already allotted to a BFD from earlier in the week. This gave Wearn a comfortable 20-point gap, which secures gold ahead of the medal race as long as he sails the race tomorrow and does not get disqualified. Now Beckett is actually in third overall, one point behind New Zealand's George Gautrey. Gautrey has been working his way up the leaderboard all week and despite a (dropped) BFD in race 9, he finished 9th in race 10 to slide one point ahead of Beckett. The most consistent sailor of the day, however, was Italian Lorenzo Chiavarini who managed a 7th and 6th in today's up-and-down conditions.
On the ILCA 6 course, the tight racing continues at the top. Switzerland's Maud Jayet had an impressive last few days at this championship, and she continued her strong performance today, rising into first overall. Jayet sits three points ahead of Denmark's Tokyo gold medalist Anne-Marie Rindom, who has been playing the slow and steady game at this championship. Rindom finished in 10th in the first race of the day before winning race 10. She is tied with Hungary's Mária Érdi who has been leading for most of the championship, but had an unfortunate 49th place in race 9 and regrouped to finish fourth in race 10. Only four points separates the top three, which will make for an exciting medal race tomorrow. Also still contending for gold is home favorite and three-time Olympic medalist Marit Bouwmeester, who has not been able to crack the top three yet at this championship, but is only nine points behind Jayet now.
Tune into the live-streamed medal races tomorrow, August 20, at 14:05 CEST for the ILCA 7s, and 15:05 CEST for the ILCA 6s.
ILCA 7 Results:
1. Matt Wearn (AUS) - 71 pts
2. George Gautrey (NZL) - 91 pts
3. Michael Beckett (GBR) - 92 pts
4. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) - 111 pts
5. Pavlos Kontides (CYP) - 114 pts
6. Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini (ITA) - 119 pts
7. Duko Bos (NED) - 123 pts
8. Joaquín Blanco (ESP) - 128 pts
9. Hermann Tomasgaard (NOR) - 138 pts
10. Elliot Hanson (GBR) - 146 pts
ILCA 6 Results:
1. Maud Jayet (SUI) - 65 pts
2. Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) - 69 pts
3. Mária Érdi (HUN) - 69 pts
4. Marit Bouwmeester (NED) - 74 pts
5. Charlotte Rose (USA) - 78 pts
6. Emma Plasschaert (BEL) - 94 pts
7. Josefin Olsson (SWE) - 103 pts
8. Vasileia Karachaliou (POR) - 106 pts
9. Carolina Albano (ITA) - 106 pts
10. Mara Stransky (AUS) - 122 pts
Find out more at thehague2023.sailing.org