Olympic Diary: July 31 - Topsy turvy day sets scene for dramatic Medal Races
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 31 Jul 2024 10:22 PDT
1 August 2024
Freya Black and Saskia Tidey (GBR) - 49erFX - Marseille - Paris2024 Olympic Regatta - July 31, 2024 © World Sailing / Sander van der Borch
In a topsy turvy day, the 2024 Olympic form book got turned inside out in both Mens and Womens Skiff events, setting the scene for two exciting Medal races on Thursday.
The first ever windsurfer marathon held at an Olympic Sailing Regatta, was abandoned after and hour of sailing, with Israel's Sharon Kantor holding a big lead, over the lead group of 3-4 sailors estimated to be 6m 30s ahead of the next competitors in the fleet. The race - scheduled to last an hour, started well enough, with young New Zealand sailor Veerle ten Have once again judging the start to perfection and led the fleet to the first mark.
She led the fleet on what was to supposed to be a scenic race around the Baie de Marseille, however it was not to be. as ten Have hit the first soft spot in the promising breeze, which has been allowed time to build with a postponed start time.
From there the race fell into a repetitive pattern as the windsurfers attempted to navigate around the bay, its coastline and islands - all of which served to turn the race into an obstacle course - some like rocks and islands - even a reef, others - like windshadow were invisible.
It was not unusual to see one competitor up and foiling at over 20kts, leaving others in her wake sailing in displacement mode at a fraction of that speed..
Perhaps surprisingly the Race Committee did not have the option/choose to shorten the course, but instead called a halt after an hour, by flying the blue-checked Code Flag "N" from a RIB passing at high speed down the fleet.
So ended another novelty of the 2024 Olympic Regatta. The race which scored double points was not able to be discarded, and at least half the points from the race had to be included in a sailors points score for the regatta.
The Skiff sailors were put through three scheduled fleet races in a breeze which went from barely trapezing to sailing at full stretch.
In both fleets the overnight leaders - Odile van Aarnholt and Annette Duetz (NED) in the 49erFX and Diego Botin and Florian Trittel (ESP) in the 49er, looked to be in a secure points position, and ready for the Medal race.
The Mens Skiff began with a disasterous first race start where the 49er fleet bunched around the Committee boat and to compound the congestion, the Dutch crew capsized. Out of all this the Kiwi light air specialists Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie (NZL) took control of the race halfway up the first beat and added a fourth win to their points score. Botin and Trittel (ESP) got tangled in the traffic, and recovered somewhat to pull four places on the final leg to finish 15th. They staged another recovery job on Race 11 to pull up from 19th at Mark 1, to be 12th at the finish.
In the Final Race of the 49er Qualifying Series, the Irish crew of Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson, who had been second on the overnight leaderboard turned on the magic to lead the fleet for the first three legs, with Botin and Trittel sitting in seventh spot. On the final leg the Irish dropped a place to Croatia's Fantela brothers who have switched to the 49er from the 470, after it was turned in a Mixed Crew event.
The "McKiwis" did not have a good run in the tail of the Qualifying Series, finishing 10th in Race 11 and 15th in the Final race.
Those results restored the placings on the overnight leaderboard, with Botin/Trittel now leading with 68pts, Waddilove/Dickson on 73pts and McKenzie/McHardie on 76pts.
Essentially the double scoring Medal Race maths are that Ireland has has to beat Spain by three places to take the Gold medal and the Kiwis have to beat Spain by four places (and win on a countback), and beat the Irish by two places.
It was a similar story on the 49erFX course, where helped by 10-13kt breeze the 20 crews got their three races completed on the Frioul course well in advance of the Men.
The current World Champions Odile van Aarnholt and Annette Duetz (NED), lost their points lead to the French crew of Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon, and with a two point gap the Medal race will be a Match Race between the two for the Gold Medal. Both will have to keep an eye on the Swedish crew of Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler, who are 5pts or three places behind the Dutch, with the Norwegian crew in with an outside chance.
Full results click here
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