56th Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères - Day 4
by Fédération Française de Voile 24 Apr 19:33 UTC
19-26 April 2025
On a day in which fortunes shifted as much as the winds, French Olympic Week will have its first Medal Races on Friday as the top 8 men and women kitesurfers and windsurfers battle it out for the podium.
The other six of the ten Olympic classes will have their Medal Races on Saturday with all to sail with some incredibly close leaderboards.
iQFOiL (men's & women's windsurfing)
Women (41 entries)
Three races today
Israel finished the day where they started, holding the top three and five of the top seven. China's powerful team occupy the other three in the top 8 (and 9th place for good measure) so the women's windsurfing Medal Races tomorrow will be an all-Israel vs China affair. Tamar Steinberg (11, 5, 6) had a tough day in the shifty conditions and those behind her will see an opportunity. But Israel's Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist, Sharon Kantor (3, 5, 33) also struggled and there was at least one big number throughout the top of the fleet.
Lola Sorin (FRA): "I'm a little disappointed not to finish in the top 8, but there were still plenty of good things, another top ten and it confirmed a few things. The wind was very shifty today, but what ultimately cost me overall was the first day, where I was always a little off my game. I wasn't far away all the time, so this top 10 is still a good omen for the future, because I know I'm capable of doing better. Now, it's a little rest to prepare for the world championship in Denmark at the beginning of July."
Men (76 entries)
Three races today
There was lots of shifting of positions in the shifting conditions at the top of the leaderboard, but one constant, Grae Morris, Australia's Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist. He was not quite as flawless as previous days, finishing seventh and then fifth in the second race, but was back to winning ways in the third and last race of the day.
China's Kun Bi finished third in that race and jumped into second and straight into the grand final with Morris. That result knocked France's Louis Pignolet, who could only finish way back in 17th in the last race, back into the third, despite both being equal on 32 points (Bi has more wins overall). Pignolet will have to come through the semi-final now. Poland's Pawel Tarnowski had the toughest day, with 25, 17, 20 seeing drop precipitously from second, but by one point he finished eighth and will have his shot at the title if he can make it through from the quarter-finals.
Louis Pignolet (FRA): "It was still a great day for me, even if I'm a still little bit disappointed because I'm tied on points with the second-place finisher [China's Kun Bi on 32 points], and I might have hoped to go straight into the grand final. But my fate is in my own hands tomorrow. My goal was to get into the top 8, so I'm happy, and even better, I'm definitely in the semi-finals, so that's good! The wind was very changeable all day. We started with two upwind sprints, in where I finished 3rd twice, so it was a good start. Then, we did a single race, quite complicated and with very changeable wind, and I finished 16th [actually 17th].
Formula Kite (men's and women's kite)
Women (22 entries)
Five races today
China held on to the top two spots for the grand final of the medal races tomorrow with some switches within their powerful kite team. Wan Li's victory in the fifth and final race of the day took her past compatriot Si Wang, who was only 6th after earlier taking the lead from overnight leader Jingyue Chen.
But France's Lauriane Nolot, back in competitive action for the first time since her silver medal in Paris 2024, gave them all something to think about as she continued her flight up the leaderboard with two victories in the five races to finish third overall and bank an automatic semi-final.
Men (60 entries)
Five races today
The 18-year-old Singaporean, Max Maeder, the winner of SOF 2022 at the age of 15 and a bronze medalist at Paris 2024, held his overnight lead to take poll position in the grand final of the medal races tomorrow. But he did not have it all his own way with 14, 1, 2, 4, 12 finishes in the five races. Those behind him struggled even more in the shifty conditions though and Italy's Riccardo Pianosi only just held onto second place and a grand final ticket ahead of Switzerland's Gian Stragiotti.
470 (mixed double-handed dinghy)
39 entries
Three races today
Despite an eighth place finish in the final race (which they were able to discard given the excellence of their weeks so far), Germany's Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort still extended their overnight lead after a second and first place in the first two races of the day.
Spain's Jordi Xammar Hernández & Marta Cardona Alcántara, won the first race, but were ninth in the second. A second place in the third race kept them firmly in second but they are still 16 points behind. The Italian duo of Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini moved into third but are 18 point further back.
Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort (GER)
Anna Markfort: "I think a good mix, the first race was super nice, last one got a bit funky out there. But, we waited a long time, two hours? The third one was delayed and delayed and recalled and black flagged. Happy with the day, we'll take it."
Jordi Xammar Hernández & Marta Cardona Alcántara (ESP)
Jordi Xammer Hernandez: "[Long waits?] Well, not that long, what can you do? A strong day for you guys. We're happy with how we raced and our technique. It was a very tricky day but we managed to end up with three good races. Second one, we had not a good first leg, but managed to catch up quite a lot And. And the other two, we were good from the start."
ILCA 6 and 7 - (women's & men's solo dinghy)
The biggest fleet of boats in the regatta with 112 entries in the ILCA 7 and 76 ILCA 6.
ILCA 6
Three races today
Italy's Chiara Beninin Floriani took the lead of the women's fleet with victory in the third and final race of the day. Just one point separates the top three on the leaderboard. Belgium's Emma Plasschaert stayed in second level on points despite a final race fifth place finish. Her training partner USA's Charlotte Rose stayed third with third.
Denmark's Anna Munch, the overnight leader dropped back to fourth with 4, 10, 6 finishes, but she is only seven points off third with two races left on Friday.
Chiara Beninin Floriani (ITA)
"We are we're very close (at the top). Today was very tricky because two winds were fighting against each other, so it was crucial to make the right decision of the first upwind and then the race was easier.
"But that decision was the focus of the day. Today was really fund because I really love Hyères, and I love hiking. Today was very shifty because the Mistral wanted to enter, but it was struggling with the other wind."
ILCA 7
Two races today
Hong Kong's Nicholas Halliday kept his overall lead but saw it cut dramatically after following victory in the first race with a 24th place in the second, as the shifts played havoc with the fleet. Two points separate the top three, with fourth place 16 points back with two more races left on Friday. Italy's Dimitri Peroni prospered and finished third in the second race to push the Netherlands's Duko Bos back into third overall, though the two are level on points.
Nicholas Halliday (HKG): "I'm really happy with how I've sailed so far. I mean, it's by far the best regatta I've done in a while. Today, it was really, really shifty, so it was it up in the air! I won the first race, I just played the shifts so well, and then I saw some pressure on the left side, took it and it was, wow, it was a huge shift. There was a group of us. and then I think I played a little bit more left and then I just came up on top of the group by a lot, that was pretty cool, I was really happy with that.
Second one (24th) looked like the left side was paying, and I just tried sending it up to the left, but, yeah, it didn't go my way. There were a couple of righties, and I found myself in the pack."
Pavlos Kontides (CYP): "Sport is like that, it's not always going your way and this week it's definitely been not going my way. I've been making a lot of mistakes and a lot of wrong decisions. And definitely the quality is always high in the ILCA and if you not and if you are not at the top of your game with your decisions and everything else, then you pay the price.
We still have two more races tomorrow. I will try to do my best, keep pushing and see if I can make the Medal Race and take it from there, you know."
Nacra 17 (mixed double-handed catamaran)
29 entries
Two races today
Britain's John Gimson & Anna Burnett leapt to the top of the leaderboard with a second victory of the day in the final race. After a tough day on the water in shifting conditions and rescheduled races, no one came close to matching their 4, 1, 1 results. It also showed the value of consistency, with nothing lower than an eighth place in the 12 races this week.
The day was hardest on the Italian duo, Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei, who had a 16-point cushion overnight but followed two seventh placed finishes in the first two races with 15th in the last to trail the British by three points. The Dutch duo of Willemijn Offerman & Scipio Houtman moved into third place.
John Gimson & Anna Burnett (GBR)
Anna Burnett: "We had a good day. It was a hard it was a hard day in terms of the conditions. We actually did basically almost five races because one was one got abandoned when we were almost around the top mark. So it was a bloody long day. Very physical, there was no rocket science, we just chipped away and came good. Some of the races were quite similar to what we've had the other days, you just had to go one way and go the whole way and I guess we managed to do a better job of that than we've done in previous days. From our perspective, that was the nice, righting some wrongs probably."
John Gimson: "With one-sided racing, you either get it right or you don't, we just try to judge ourselves on the details of how we did the process and if it's wrong and it's wrong and we pull back as many as we can, and if it's right, great!"
Anna Burnett: "You go out, see what we see on the water and then try and race hard to go for that. It's not simple, the results will show it's not simple."
John Gimson: "There's a lot of luck involved but it all evens out by the end of the week. People will be getting tired. We've had a full foiling week, tomorrow looks a bit lighter."
49er (men's and women's double-handed skiff)
Women's FX (38 entries)
Three races today
A day of big numbers at the top of the fleet saw Jana Germani & Bianca Caruso take an overnight leader despite finishing 26th in the third and final race. It helped that Belgium's Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts were 23rd. They held on to their second place, just, by virtue of more race victories than Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland, who jumped up into third after second place finished in the second and third races.
USA's overnight leaders, Paris Henken & Helena Scutt, had the toughest day of the lead group with 21, 14, 17 seeing them drop to fourth. But just one point separates the boats in second and fifth the leaders are only seven points ahead with three races to come in this high-scoring regatta.
Men's 49er (67 entries)
Four races today
A huge delay in the middle of the day because of the shifting wind seemed to cost the USA duo of Nevin Snow & Ian MacDiarmid, who had jumped in the overall lead with fourth place in the first race and first in the second. After the wait they were 21st and 14th to see Britain's James Grummett and Rhos Hawes move past them, but only by five points. The USA duo were philosophical back in the boat yard as should be all of the top 12 at least with so much to play for. Uruguay's duo of Hernando Umpierre and Fernando Diz, the overnight leaders, were 20th in the first race but 8, 4, 5 saw them stay third overall, one point behind the Americans.
Nevin Snow & Ian MacDiarmid (USA)
Ian MacDiarmid: "There's a chance we were 20-25th in one race. We actually had this discussion on the way in about the different ways - I hate the word cope - but to cope with tough days. When you have these weird conditions, I think it's hard for people to understand how gosh darn hard it is, you know? You can have everything go your way in the first two. And then the next two, you feel like, you're sailing on another boat. And some of it's mental, some of it's how you reading the course.
But we were discussing on the way in, is it just a nudge to your buddy of like, hey, man, we're in this together? Is it, you know, kind of taking a second and look up the course a bit more more? And, you know, in the end, it's everything.
The delay hurt us a little bit. The first two races, I mean, for the conditions. incredibly well. The general rule of thumb, the shiftier the conditions get, the higher, the average average score should be. Then you walk away from two races within an average of two, which is unbelievable.
Every once in a while, you get the hot hand and it feels like things are happening, you're like, sweet.
But then the breeze died and two-hour delay, maybe 90 minutes (to the start of the next race). You usually wait 15 minutes.
It's definitely the trickiest thing we have to deal with. You know, it's a little nicer when it's light, because you're just kind of hanging out, you pop the gear off, and it's kind of mellow, but these days are tricky, it'll be windy and you're waiting, the boat's jumping around, sail get destroyed. Today's a great day example of skiff sailing - you can feel really smart and really good in the first half half and feel really not great in the second half.
At the end of the day, you know, you're the same sailor, just how to not get so dragged into the results. And I think that that's been the trickiest thing, the most important thing for me is an athlete of actually buying into that, having a good priority list and good process list, so the process then gives you a result you're comfort with.
I've found that the more you can take the surprise out of everything, whether that's with the wind or the results, or even just the wetsuit you're wearing, unsurprisingly, the better you react to it, And I think that that's the great challenge of sailing is, you, how do you take something that's so crazy, so insane and take away as many spread as possible? And, damn, that's that's hard. When we do it, we look really smart and we're doing really well, but..."
All results can be found here.