USA threatening at 470 Worlds

Vilamoura, Portugal (March 10, 2021) – The 2021 470 World Championship held two more races, with now 7 of the 11 races completed prior to the Medal Race. With three US women’s teams seeking selection for the Women’s Two Person Dinghy event at Tokyo 2020, Carmen and Emma Cowles now hold the advantage after winning the day with a 1-2.

At the top of the Men’s ranking, the Swedish duo Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström, reigning European champions, managed to rise to the 1st place, pushing the Spanish Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez to 4th, until now the overall leaders.

“It is a dream for us to be champions. It was a very treacherous and competitive day where every mistake counts, and we made them. We struggled with the light wind and it was hard to understand where it was going, but we succeeded,” said Anton Dahlberg.

With the wind decreasing in intensity compared to the last days, the Russian duo Pavel Sozykin and Denis Gribanov moved up to 2nd, maintaining the rise in the classification started in yesterday’s regattas and the Portuguese Diogo and Pedro Costa reached 3rd place. The USA team of Stu McNay and Dave Hughes are in 5th.

With this classification the Portuguese duo remains the best positioned to occupy the only Olympic spot that still exists for the Tokyo 2020 Games, which is being contested by 7 countries.

In the women’s competition, the Spanish Silvia Mas Depares and Patricia Cantero Reina kept their 1st place followed by the French Camille Lecointre and Aloïse Retornaz, reigning European champions. The Dutch Afrodite Zegers and Lobke Berkhout climbed to 3rd place, while USA has two teams in the top 10 (Cowles, 6th; Nikole Barnes/ Lara Dallman-Weiss, 7th).

The women’s fleet is also trying to fill the only Olympic spot still available. So far Turkey is the best placed, followed by Russia and Ukraine.

In the mixed competition, the English duo Amy Seabright and James Taylor leads, followed by the Israelis Gil Cohen and Noam Homri, and the Americans Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth close the podium. Mixed crews will be the future of the 470 class and the exclusive format to be adopted after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Championships on March 8-18 will be competed as single series per event, with 11 races and one discard to determine the top ten positions which advance to the Medal Race on the final day. At least 5 races are required to be completed to constitute the regatta series and/or to enter the Medal Race.

USA qualification scores: https://www.ussailing.org/olympics/selection/olympic-games/2020trials/

Event details – Results – Facebook

Tokyo Olympic Sailing Program
Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Women’s Skiff – 49erFx
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Women’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Original dates: July 24 to August 9, 2020
Revised dates: July 23 to August 8, 2021