Standings shuffle on penultimate day at 420 Worlds

Travemunde, Germany (August 2, 2014) – A high scoring race day five with three back to back races for all fleets. The change in breeze was welcomed, with racing kicking off in around 10 knots, steadily increasing and holding at around 13 knots with gusts up to 14 knots.

The ten races so far have served up a full range of conditions, testing teams across light winds, breeze, massive shifts and everything in between. The 2014 World Champions crowned tomorrow will be incredibly deserving teams who have had to dig deep to deliver in the tough racing courses and up against the world class fleet competing here in Travemuende.

So far across the 420 Open Fleets, no team achieved more than a single race win. It is a tough fleet, and the front of the leaderboard have had upside down days as much as everyone else. In the 420 Ladies, the most race wins goes to the Greek teams of Aikaterini Tavoulari/Fotini Koutsoumpou who are in third and Souzana Bakatsia/Nikoletta Papageorgiou in 5th overall, with three wins each.

Just two more races to go to decide the 420 World and Ladies World Championship titles, and racing on medal-deciding Sunday kicks of at 1000 hours with the warning signal for the 420 Open and 420 Ladies Gold fleets, followed by silver. Eyes are also focused on the other trophies up for the taking, including the Francis Mouvet Trophy which will be awarded to the top overall nation, the John Merricks Trophies which will be presented to the highest placed 420 Open and 420 Ladies Teams aged 18 and under, and the William Sanchez Trophies which will be awarded to the highest placed 420 Open and 420 Ladies teams aged 16 and under.

420 OPEN
Perfect racing conditions for today’s three back to back races in a breeze of around 9-13 knots as racing started at 1000 hours. The forecast was for the breeze to ease up, but it intensified to provide some of the most dramatic racing of the Championship.

French teams took control of race 8 early on, claiming the first four places with the lead to Robin Follin/Tao Manni. Team mates Maxime Pedron/Eliott Michal took over and held onto the end, but it was a crucial second place finish which saw Hippolyte Macheti/Sitoine Dantes leapfrog up the leaderboard three places and into the overall lead.

“Today was difficult because the wind was really shifty,” said Macheti after racing, as they went from a 2nd to 24th place finish, finding themselves at the point of no return in race 9. The race track did not go their way as Dantes explained, “We were on the left of the track and we couldn’t tack and were forced to stay left, but the right was much better. It was a very difficult race.”

Race 10 and the pair played it safe, racing up the middle of the track following the breeze to consolidate. “Tomorrow we will sail as every day and will not change our approach. We just want to do the best,” added Macheti. “We finished 4th at the ISAF Youths and it would just be fantastic if we can finish on the podium here.”

The 15 point advantage held at the start of the race by series leaders, Jose Manuel Ruiz/Fernando Davila (ESP) was destroyed as they finished race 8 back in 45th and dropped to 2nd overall. All change elsewhere on the leaderboard, with the race shaking up scorelines and reducing the margin between the top 10 boats to just 24 points.

Onto race 9 and you could feel the tension in the air, so no surprise a general recall on the first attempt to start as the wind increased and teams leapt off too early. More juggling in the fleet with many different teams moving into the lead as the race unfolded. An early lead to Portugal’s Diogo Perrreria/Manuel Macedo, soon exchanged to Greece’s Vasilios Gourgiotis/Ioannis Pappas as the two chased each other around the track, but ultimately the Portuguese had a UFD penalty and the Greeks went on to win.

Race 10 was more of a procession led by Adrian Dominguez/Calixto Abalo (ESP), before 420 World Champions Xavier Antich/Pedro Terrones (ESP) swept into the lead to score their best result of the Championship.

Proving yesterday’s race win was no fluke, Israel’s Ido Bilik/Ofek Shalgi (ISR) pumped out a 10, 3 today, with their third in race 9 briefly put them into the lead, until their 28th in the final race forced another double digit finish onto their scorecard.

The top boats are incredibly close on points with Sunday’s final day of racing still wide open.

In the 420 Open Silver fleet, Russel Clarida/Forrest Thomas hold the lead by one point over Turkey’s Sazi Kerem Balanli/Ibrahim Balanli, with Germany’s Mike Pryzbyl/Dominik Wolk in third.

420 Open – Top 10 Overall after 10 Races
1. Jose Manuel Ruiz/Fernando Davila (ESP) – 69 pts
2. Hippolyte Macheti/Sidoine Dantes (FRA) – 72 pts
3. Ido Bilik/Ofek Shalgi (ISR) – 73 pts
4. Robin Folin/Tao Manni (FRA) – 79.7 pts
5. Muhamad Faizal Norizan/Ahmad Syuki Abdul Aziz (MAS) – 82 pts
6. Adrian Dominguez/Calixto Abalo (ESP) – 85 pts
7. Jia Yi Loh/Jonathan Yeo (SIN) – 90 pts
8. Nital Hasson/Yoav Shpliman (ISR) – 99 pts
9. Santiago Mas/Luis Mas (ESP) – 122 pts
10. Swann Hayewski/Alexis Thomas (FRA) – 126 pts

420 LADIES
Germany’s 420 teams have struggled to break into the top of the leaderboard, but race 8 marked a new day as the host nation fielded 7 teams inside the top ten of the 420 Ladies Gold fleet at the first mark in race 8, with Johanna Meier/Maren Roos leading. The pair continued to control the race from start to finish, with only Spain’s Carmen Davia/Julia Davila and Greece’s Souzana Bakatsia/Nikoletta Papageorgiou (GRE) managing to squeeze between the German teams and push to the front of the pack.

A significant leaderboard for Spain’s Carmen Davila/Julia Davila who finished second and moved up to third overall after race 8. As they gained, a further downward plummet for ISAF Youth World Gold Medallists Silvia Mas/Marta Davila who again struggled in the breeze for a repeat performance of their double-digit score yesterday and finished race 8 in 34th, only just hanging in on the leaderboard top 10, at 10th overall.

Kimberly Lim/Savannah Siew (SIN) were still leading at this point on an equal 31 points with Carlotta Omari/Francesca Russo Cirillo (ITA) in second.

Race 9 and as the breeze changed so did the leaderboard. Omari/Russo Cirillo finished in 6th finish to jump into the lead, whilst leaders Lim/Siew were knocked down to third from their 12th place, and Davila/Davila moved into second.

The final race 10 of the day and Omari/Russo Cirillo crossed the finish in 3rd to hold onto the overall lead. The pair have been competing in the 420 for three years. 2014 marks their third attempt to get on the podium, in what has been a steady climb up with a 7th at the 2012 Worlds and fifth place finish last year in Valencia, Spain.

Singapore’s Lim/Siew moved back up to leaderboard second after a 2nd place finish, with the race win going to Aikaterini Tavoulari/Fotini Koutsoumpou (GRE) who round out the top three in third.

The three current podium placed boats have a 12 points gap over the rest of the pack and if they put in a repeat performance of today, they are likely to be chasing podium colours between themselves.

Singapore’s Lim/Siew are girls on a mission, as 2014 marks their last season in the 420 and final major Championship in the Class, “I think tomorrow with the points being so close, all we can really do is focus on our own races and just get the best scores we can. Our goal is a podium finish.”

In the 420 Ladies Silver Fleet Great Britain’s Jenny Smallwood/Danielle Thomas lead over Turkey’s Irem Saner/Ceren Saner and Italy’s Laura Izzo/Maria Giovanna Lanzillo in third.

Ladies – Top 10 Overall after 10 Races
1. Carlotta Omari/Francesca Russo Cirillo (ITA) – 40 pts
2. Kimberly Lim/Savannah Siew (SIN) – 45 pts
3. Aikaterini Tavoulari/Fotini Koutsoumpou (GRE) – 47 pts
4. Elena Picotti/Maria Coluzzi (ITA) – 59 pts
5. Souzana Bakatsia/Nikoletta Papageorgiou (GRE) – 61 pts
6. Nuraisyah Jamil/Umi Nurwahida Sallehuddin (MAS) – 66 pts
7. Paula Barcelo/Margarita Alba (ESP) – 70 pts
8. Silvia Mas/Marta Davila (ESP) – 74 pts
9. Carmen Davila/Julia Davila (ESP) – 75 pts
10. Clara Addari/Arianna Perini (ITA) – 83 pts

Racing Schedule for Sunday, August 3
Two races are scheduled for all fleets, with the scheduled warning signal brought forward to 1000 hours. 420 Open Gold and 420 Ladies Gold will start first, followed by the silver fleets. Live race mark rounding updates will be on the Championship website: worlds.420sailing.org

Participating nations in the 420 World and Ladies World Championships are:
Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, USA.

Report by class media. Photo by Christian Beeck.