Light wind shuffle standings at 470 Europeans

Athens, Greece (July 11, 2014) – The 470 fleets stayed ashore under postponement waiting for the breeze to fill on race day 2 at the 2014 470 European Championships.

As the sea breeze came in during the early afternoon, the fleet headed out to the race track with the 470 Men blue fleet getting underway first just before 1530 hours. The promising 10 knot sea breeze, slowly dropped to serve up a tricky and shifty light wind shuffle, with a light choppy sea. With the first race for all fleets completed, the wind eased off to 3 knots and it was onto another postponement, until ultimately no hope of improvement forced the Race Committee to send the fleet ashore just after 1800 hours.

So with four races completed in the 470 Men, the qualification series is wrapped up for the seventy-three boat fleet. The 470 Men will now be split into gold and silver for the final series of 6 races, which runs from Saturday 12 July through to Monday 14 July. The top 37 boats advance to gold fleet and the rest to silver. The 470 Women will continue to sail as a single fleet for a further 8 scheduled races. The top ten team Medal Races will take place on Tuesday 15 July 2014.

470 MEN
Today was the final opportunity to make the cut to the top thirty-seven boats who advance to gold fleet and ultimately have a shot at the top 10 medal race line up. In the light and tricky breeze, a tiny mistake escalated into big place changes on the track. The race discard came into play after race 4, which also shuffled the leaderboard a bit.

Race wins today to Spain’s Onan Barreiros/Juan Curbelo in the 470 blue fleet and Great Britain’s partnership of Luke Patience/Elliott Willis matching them in the yellow fleet, pushes the Spanish up to second overall and the British to 5th. Remaining at the front of the pack, from their third place finish are Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan.

“It is obviously nice to be in front,” said Belcher. “We are obviously sailing pretty well, so are a lot of other guys. We prefer a little bit more breeze, but we have been working pretty hard and are happy with our performance in these tricky conditions. To be consistent over the four races puts us in a nice position and we are happy. We look forward to racing everyone tomorrow.”

The last team making the cut to the thirty-seven boat gold fleet are Russia’s Pavel Ssykin/Denis Gribanov. The pair were disqualified from race 4 and plummeted down the leaderboard to 37th and on equal points with the team in 38th. Fortunately for the Russians, they took the tiebreak advantage and advanced through to gold fleet.

Showing just how competitive racing is in the senior fleet, a surprising appearance in 41st on the leaderboard for the recently crowned 470 Junior World Champions Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp (ESP). The pair managed two top 15 results for races 1 and 4, but sandwiched in between were two mid-fleet results.

Two races are scheduled for the 470 Men on Saturday 12 July.

470 Men – Top 10 after 4 Races
1. Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan (AUS) – 7 pts
2. Onan Barreiros/Juan Curbelo (ESP) – 8 pts
3. Joonas Lindgren/Niklas Lindgren (FIN) – 8 pts
4. Carl-Fredrik Fock/Marcus Dackhammar (SWE) – 11 pts
5. Luke Patience/Elliot Willis (GBR) – 12 pts
6. Pierre Leboucher/Nicolas Le Berre (FRA) – 15 pts
7. Matthias Schmid/Florian Reichstaedter (AUT) – 16 pts
8. Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO) – 16 pts
9. Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion (FRA) – 17 pts
10. Stuart McNay/David Hughes (USA) – 18 pts

470 WOMEN
Same top ten teams in the 470 Women, but just a different order as a tricky race 3 changed the leaderboard. A tumble down to 5th overall for overnight leaders Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL), after their 17th place finish in race 3 helped to give the lead to 2012 Olympic silver medallists Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR). The British pair tidily won the race and now carry a 7 point margin over the rest of the pack. The Kiwis fought back after finding themselves in 30th at one point during the race, but it was too much of an ask to clamber back to the front. The discard will kick in after race tomorrow’s race 4, so expect some more leaderboard changes.

Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar benefited from another top 10 result and move up to second overall, with Brazil’s Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Barbachan into third.

Vadlau has bounced back from knee surgery earlier in the year, and at their first event in the 470 since Vadlau’s recovery finished in a strong second place at Kieler Woche.

“It is amazing you know,” said Vadlau. “I had more than a four month break and being back in the boat feels like paradise for me. We are here with a really strong fleet and will see how it goes.”

Fantastic news for the pair came only a few weeks ago when crew Jola Ogar, who competed in the 470 for her native Poland at the 2012 Olympics, had her Austrian citizenship confirmed. The team can now just focus on their 2016 Olympic campaign. “To now be with a perfect crew , we can certainly rock Rio,” grinned Vadlau.

The 470 women fleet are sailing a single series, so will continue racing as one fleet for 8 more races through until Monday 14 June, after which the top 10 teams will advance to the Medal Race.

Three races for the 470 Women on Saturday 12 July, with a warning signal scheduled at 1300 hours.

470 Women – Top 10 after 3 Races
1. Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) – 9 pts
2. Lara Vadlau/Jolanta Ogar (AUT) – 16 pts
3. Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Barbachan (BRA) – 16 pts
4. Anne Haeger/Briana Provancha (USA) – 21 pts
5. Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL) – 25 pts
6. Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh Mcintyre (GBR) – 25 pts
7. Alisa Kirilyuk/Liudmila Dmitrieva (RUS) – 32 pts
8. Roberta Caputo/Alice Sinno (ITA) – 36 pts
9. Afrodite Kyranakou/Anneloes Van Veen (NED) – 38 pts
10. Amy Seabright/Anna Carpenter (GBR) – 45 pts

Overall Results: http://europeans.470.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall
Event website: Europeans.470.org

About the 2014 470 Open European Championships
Nautical Club of Tzitzifies Kallithea (NOTK) in the iconic Olympic sailing city of Athens, Greece is hosting the six days of racing at the 2014 470 European Championships which kicked off on Thursday 10 July 2014. The racing format is an 11 race series scheduled for the 470 Men and 470 Women fleets, after which the top 10 advance to the final Medal Race on Tuesday 15 July 2014