Erratic winds shuffle Paris 2024 standings

Marseille, France (July 30, 2024) – The third day at the Paris 2024 Olympics completed all the planned races for the Men’s and Women’s Skiff and Men’s and Women’s Windsurfing, but it was amid a hot, dusty, and erratic wind that came in from over the mountains of Marseille which peaked at 18 knots but troughed at 5 knots across some courses.

The Windsurfer fleets are not quite at the midpoint of their qualifying stages, but the Skiffs have just three more races planned for tomorrow to finalize the top ten teams that advance to the Medal Race on August 1.

For all competition reports, click here.

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Men’s and Women’s Windsurfing:
Luuc van Opzeeland (NED) had started his campaign in the worst way possible with a Black Flag Disqualification on the first race of the Olympics, but the Dutch favorite made amends in the best way possible today with a five-race schedule to get caught up.

Through a mix of short-sharp slalom races and the longer course racing heats, Van Opzeeland hammered home some good scores to rise to the top of the rankings.

The first slalom race of the session appeared to catch a lot of the fleet unawares. Massed up at the right-hand end of the start line, as the clock ticked down the riders just weren’t moving. Not for lack of wanting to, there was just no wind at their end of the line.

However, less than a hundred meters further away at the left-hand end of the line, Noah Lyons (USA) wind-whacked his board up on to the foil and the American was up, up and away down the race track. Brazil’s Mateus Isaac was not far behind the leader while the rest of the fleet eventually caught enough breeze to get up and running, although they were never going to catch the wily (or was it lucky?) Lyons and Isaac who crossed in first and second respectively.

Poor old Nicolo Renna, the reigning World Champion from Italy, suffered equipment failure with his wishbone boom. After trying to patch it up with a make-do-and-mend attempt to keep on racing, the Italian had to sit out the first two races while he got a new boom from the shore and got back out there. Despite the massive setback, the rest of his scores were good enough to put him in sixth overall. A much better outcome than it might have been.

Good solid days for Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski and Tom Reuveny from Israel who hold second and third overall behind the flying Dutchman.

On a day where so many failed to live up to their billing as hot favorite, Great Britain’s Emma Wilson dominated today’s Women’s Windsurfing races, getting all her scores in the top two except for an aberration in Race 5 when a 17th place reminded us that she is actually mortal.

Wilson sits on an aggregate score (with discard) of 8 points, putting her significantly ahead of Israel’s reigning world champion Sharon Kantor who sits in second with 25 points. Italy’s Marta Maggetti is also sailing consistently to hold third spot with 30 points, some way ahead of Peru’s Maria Bazo in fourth.

North America Results:
Men:
4. Noah Lyons (USA)

Women:
17. Mariana Aguilar Chavez Peon (MEX)
20. Dominique Stater (USA)

Men’s and Women’s Skiff:
While the multi-medalled 49erFX team from New Zealand had been languishing in last place little more than a day ago, today’s stronger breeze on the Calanques race course made for a different style of skiff racing. Jo Aleh and Molly Meech stretched their legs, leaned back in their trapeze harnesses, and got the Kiwi skiff planing into the finish line with scores of 3,2,1. They now lie in seventh overall, and if they could enjoy another day like that, New Zealand could even be back in medal contention.

The Swedes were also looking forward to stretching their legs and ready to roll out their super strength. Their starts looked a little over conservative and Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler were often bounced off on to port tack behind their faster-starting rivals to look for some clear air. But once they found a clear lane, the Swedes could exert their boat speed advantage to claims scores of 2,1,5 which lifts them to third overall in the standings.

A shaky start for the Dutch with a 19th place but Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz hit their stride in the next heats to take finishes of 3,2. With the French struggling to maintain their devastating form in the lighter breeze of the first two days, the Dutch moved into the lead and relegate France to the silver medal position.

However, a good day for the Dutch in the women’s skiff did not carry to the Dutch favorites in the Men’s Skiff fleet. Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken have been the standout team of recent years, winning three out of the last four world championships, but they just haven’t been able to find their groove so far this week.

Another lackluster day keeps them in 10th overall, yet still within striking distance of the podium if the Dutch can reignite the magic on the final day of fleet racing tomorrow.

It’s probably fair to say that no one hit their groove today. With the wind blowing over the top of the 500-metre high Calanques mountains, it was extremely patchy and highly variable in wind strength. Somehow the Spanish team, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, managed to grind out three great finishes from a difficult afternoon, scores of 3,2,2 lifting them into an 11-point lead over Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove who maintain second overall.

Former yellow bib wearers Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie (NZL) just couldn’t make sense of the fluky conditions and drop to third while a race win at the end of a strong day lifts Great Britain’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt to fourth overall. It’s very tight on points between a lot of teams, so tomorrow will be equally or even more stressful than today.

North America Results:
Men
5. Ian Barrows/ Hans Henken (USA)
16. Will Jones/ Justin Barnes (CAN)

Women
10. Georgia Lewin Lafrance/ Antonia Lewin Lafrance (CAN)
12. Stephanie Roble/ Maggie Shea (USA)

Tomorrow:
Qualifying continues for the windsurfing fleets with four races scheduled while the skiffs have three qualifying races planned before their Medal Race on August 1.

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Source: World Sailing