2009-04-21
Three French teams in the lead
C.McKenzie
Light conditions continue to prevail in the Seindexe Olympique Française in Hyères with a westerly wind who provided the last chances for the large fleets to qualify in the Gold fleet.
With most teams scoring high scores, some fleets see new leaders.
Beijing Silver medallist Julien Bontemps takes the lead in the RS:X men division on the third day of racing in Hyères which also marks his come back into International competition:
“This is my first regatta with an objective for results, so I am satisfied, however I would like to have more wind to test my planning conditions.”
Bontemps has excelled in the light medium wind experienced so far in the event, with a stream of second places and a third as worse result!
2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Shahar Zubari took two bullets to climb from 6 th to second at only one point from the French! Maayan Davidovich (ISR) is conserving the lead in the women division, despite a 13th she is discarding. ISAF World Cup leader and winner in Palma, Blanca Manchon is gaining two places in second position overall.
ISAF Sailing World Cup leaders, Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl (USA) started the third day of racing in Hyères in the lead of the 470 men’s series.
“We are quiet excited about the ideas of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, it is a great concept and we are trying to do well in all of them.”says Biehl. The American pair has raced in all four ISAF Sailing World Cup events so far. “Unfortunately I need to have some surgery and will be out of action. I hope that Stuart can keep scoring points with the new crew. We are aiming to be racing again together in August for the Worlds and in Weymouthfor the last SWC event.”
The US Sailing Team Alphagraphics 470 sailors reflect on their racing debut in Hyères: “There are many good teams here and with a good race, anyone has a chance to come back to the score. The conditions are challenging so we will see!”
After two races sailed in a light westerly wind on Tuesday, the Americans score their first result outside the top 10 to drop to 3rd overall.
“We had very average starts and didn’t choose the best side, so that doesn’t help!”
Race winners include Italian Team of Zandona/Mancinelli ITA, who climbs from 6th to second overall after a second and a first. Spanish Olympic representatives and Rolex Miami OCR winners Onan Barreiros and Aaron Sarmiento (ESP) win the last race to place 9th.
Matias Buhler and Felix Steiger (SUI) are back in the lead after consistent racing in 5th and 7th.
Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy winners, Austrian sailors Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher are the new leaders in the 470 women class after winning the first race by an impressive margin and sailing to 4th in the second.
“We were very upset after yesterday’s racing. We sailed the last race in very shifty conditions. We were in the front group but the wind made a huge shift and we ended up the race in 24th place! So today, we were very fired up and started the race in an attacking mood!”
Earlier leader Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (DEN) had a difficult day with a 18th and a 19th. They drop back to second:
“Of course we are a little disappointed with today’s results. We knew yesterday, that we had got an extremely good start, but we were still less than halfway through the regatta, and a lot could happen. We still have four races ahead and the medal race, and as we saw today, a lot of things can happen quite quickly.”
The Dutch teams of Fokkema / Jongens and Mulder / Witteven are placing 3rd and 4th respectively.
"We have started sailing together about a month ago,” explains Witteven who won silver in the Beijing Olympics with Mandy Mulder in the Yngling. “We are very much enjoying ourselves at the moment. This feels really good. We both realised how much we missed racing. We are improving every day and the speed is good. We actually get the chance to get our heads out of the boat once in a while. And that helps a lot especially here in Hyeres in these light conditions. We hope for some more wind so we can see how we would handle those conditions.”
Damien Seguin is back in the lead in the 2.4mR with a first and a second today. Skandia Team GBR, Helena Lucas is only three points behind but finished the day with a victory.
Commenting on the first two days Lucas says: “The racing is tricky, with the light wind we had during the first two days it was important to stay with the pressure, and for that you need to be able to look out of the boat for the shifts. That’s pretty hard in the 2.4mR because we are so low in the boat! My coach has designed and built what I call a “carbon tea tray”, it does help to lift me more above sea level. I am very happy that the 2.4 are part of the Sailing World Cup. It did encourage two more events to include us with the Olympic classes. It is a pity that the Sonar and Skudd are not more motivated to come to these regattas, hopefully we will encourage them to participate.”
After winning convincingly the Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy in Palma, Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello (ITA) are comforting their lead in the 49er fleet with two seconds and a third. They are 15 points ahead of Rolex Miami OCR winners, the Austrians Delle Karth / Resch, and 17 from European champions, the Alonso (ESP) brothers.In the Laser, Paul Goodison in top position and Maxim Semerkhanov (RUS) 4th overall have taken it all after winning both races in their respective group.
“Some days it just all falls into place,” explains the Olympic Champion, “You’re going fast and making good decisions. The hardest thing for me is that I’ve been sailing in pretty windy conditions back home as it can be quite hard to motivate yourself to go sailing when it’s light, so I was a bit concerned about how well I’d do in the light winds against the other guys.”
Luka Radelic and Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) are on equal points on second and third places. Wednesday, the top 47 boats will sail in the Gold fleet. Only one race was sailed in the women division won by Anna Tunnicliffe who gets from 4th to 2nd overall. The sixth race was abandoned and rescheduled for Wednesday.
The Finn sharing the course with the Radial managed to get two races in. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) increases his lead with a series of top 5 results. The days races went to Skandia Team GBR, Giles Scott who won his first major event last week in Palma and Ed Wright, leader of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. They place 3rd and 5th overall.
Three races sailed in the Star fleet and two wins give a slight advantage to dual World Champion Xavier Rohart starting in the 2012 Olympiad with Pierre-Alexis Ponsot.
“The racing area is complicated and racing in a small fleet doesn’t forgive any mistakes. There is not much difference between everyone’s boat speed.” Talking about his new crew, Rohart adds: “Everything is working fine. We have a good communication and we start to see the result of it now.”
The new Australian team of Paul McKenzie and Philip Toth, won their first race in the Star with under three weeks in the boat “We sailed well with good speed and tactics. This is the first race we managed to put all the pieces together.”
The classes split in groups will start to race the final stage on Wednesday in Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets.
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