RIO 2016: The road returns to Europe

Palma, Spain (April 4, 2013) – With the final round of racing underway at ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma, today’s racing was a new turn in the quest for top performance. Three races were held for each class, points counting as a sum with the carryover result (a sailor’s overall standing at the end of the qualifying series).

Two teams were the big movers among the North American contingent. Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha climbed five places to fourth position in the Women’s 470 leaderboard, while Sarah Newberry and John Casey shot up in the Nacra 17 from 10th to 5th. Both teams counted a race win today.

Haeger and Provancha started the day with a bullet, followed by a 5-9, and are now just three points behind third-placed Croatian team. Haeger admitted that the first two days of sailing in heavy breeze threw them off their goals, but now they had found their rhythm. “Romain (coach Romain Bonnaud) did a really good job of gathering us together and helping us reset,” she explained. “It really inspired us to turn the regatta around. We hope to continue our good results.”

For Newberry and Casey, they closed the day in fourth but a protest dropped them a position. “The competition has been very high,” said Casey. “We’ve been in it and out of it. If we make one mistake everyone capitalizes on it. Everyone is close in speed.” The team scored a 7-5-1 in today’s three final series racing, but in the second race were involved in an incident and disqualified.

Newberry explained that they have been spending most of their time training in the U.S. with other multihull teams, and that is where they will focus their time in 2012. “We wanted to come over here and check in with the fleet,” she said. “The next time you’ll see us over here will be at the Worlds (in the Netherlands on July 20-28).”

Also moving up the charts was Canadian Isabella Bertold, who rolled a 16-7-2 in the Radial to rise from 10th to 6th place. The final series concludes on Friday with the top ten in each event advancing to the medal races on Saturday.

Daily event report – USA report – Results

BACKGROUND: The ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma (Apr 1-6) is the third of four events for the 2012-13 ISAF Sailing World Cup season. The season began in Melbourne, Australia (Dec 2-8) and was in Miami (Jan 28-Feb 2), with the final event in Hyeres, France (Apr 20-27). The ISAF Sailing World Cup is open to the sailing classes (equipment) chosen for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions.