470 World Championship at La Rochelle, France - Day 2
by Louissa Smith 7 Aug 2013 08:49 BST
5-10 August 2013
Qualification stage wraps up with Australia and France leading Gold Fleets
The 5 race qualification stage today decided the division of teams advancing to the gold, silver and bronze fleets for the finals stage at the 2013 470 World Championships.
A light and shifty breeze kept teams ashore until mid-afternoon, with the first races getting underway around 1600 hours. The qualification stage discard kicked in after race 4, so some manoeuvring up and down the leaderboard, with race 5 the final opportunity for teams to push themselves to either consolidate or advance their positions ahead of the final stage fleet cut.
470 Men
Mat Belcher/Will Ryan did everything they needed to position themselves in first on the leaderboard by winning race 4, so opted not to sail race 5 and headed back to shore. The pair advance to the final stage of racing with an optimum 0 point carry forward scoreline, as they seek to extend their run of event victories and achieve their first World Championship title together.
Second placed Pierre Leboucher/Nicolas Le Berre are amongst the many renowned French 470 sailors in the fleet, and the hopes of French sailing are stacked in favour of this pair to be amongst the medallists come Saturday. Leboucher finished with the silver medal at the 2012 470 Worlds and represented France at the 2012 Olympics with his former crew. Also pushing up the leaderboard today are the 2013 470 European Champions Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion who move up to 4th from 8th yesterday.
Le Berre was in some pain last week due to a knee injury which made it doubtful whether the pair would be able to race. "We are happy because I was injured last week and it is good satisfaction for me to be here and have such a good beginning to the series," he said.
"Yesterday was perfect conditions for 470, with planning upwind and 15 knots was great for us," Le Berre explained. "Today there is less wind, but it has been really interesting for strategy and tactics. We had a good time on the water."
Jacob Saunders/Graeme Saunders (CAN) qualify to gold fleet in 30th © Christoph Breschi
Despite being a bit further back on the leaderboard, the team of the day award goes to Argentina's Lucas Calabrese/Juan de la Fuente, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallists. The pair converted their lowly 54th place on the leaderboard going into the day, after a starting error gave them a penalty in race 2, to 14th on the leaderboard from two second place finishes.
"Yesterday was not a good day for us," commented de la Fuente. "Today, we had to two top fifteen results to make it through to the gold, so we are pretty happy. We now go to the finals, and with 7 races it is a long way to go still. Today was around 10 knots, so everyone was really racing close, but we managed to round the first upwind mark in the top 5 in both races and from then it was pretty clear for us."
Similar to several teams, the pair have just returned from a training session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and arrived in La Rochelle only a few days ahead of the Championship.
The top 39 boats on the leaderboard advance to the gold fleet and are in contention for the podium places, with 39 teams in each of the silver and bronze fleets.
470 Men Results after Day 2: (top ten)
1. Mat Belcher/Will Ryan (AUS) – 2 pts
2. Pierre Leboucher/Nicolas Le Berre (FRA) – 8 pts
3. Paul Snow-Hansen/Daniel Willcox (NZL) – 9 pts
4. Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion (FRA) – 10 pts
5. Nicholas Rogers/Elliot Willis (GBR) – 12 pts
6. Luke Patience/Joe Glanfield (GBR) – 14 pts
7. Jasper Wagner/Dustin Baldewein (GER) – 16 pts
8. Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) – 16 pts
9. Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) – 19 pts
10. Stu McNay/Dave Hughes (USA) – 20 pts
470 Women
The 470 European Champions, Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron from France, have moved into the overall lead and will carry forward a bonus 0 point scorecard into the finals stage which gets underway tomorrow.
Just behind them and advancing to the final stage with a 2 point position are China's Xiaomei Xu/Chunyan Yu who finished in 7, 1 today. This pair were absent from the international racing scene after losing out on selection to represent China at the Olympics, returning with impressive form in January to finish in third at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami and following up with a 5th at ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma.
Their training mainly takes place in China, and so far they are blasting the competition here in La Rochelle. "Our performance is as a result of our continued training," explained Xu. "Our focus is totally on the starting line, to watch the conditions, wind speed, shifts and we focus to get a good start." Practice makes perfect, and this pair delivered in race 5 leading the fleet from start to finish.
Defending World Champions Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark from Great Britain are up in third overall and wrapped up their qualification stage with a win in the yellow fleet. Wednesday's first day of finals will be the first time they come face to face with the series leaders Lecointre/Geron, and with the top 27 women's teams up against each other from tomorrow onwards, expect a few leaderboard shifts.
Sarah Cook, the 2012 Olympic rower who has jumped to sailing in partnership with 2008 Olympic gold medal helm Elise Rechichi from Australia, scored her first ever race win, which had a broad beam on her face. "I guess it is good to know we have the speed and have some good skills and can start to get a gauge of how far we have come in the last 9 months, since I changed over from rowing," said Cook. "It is good confirmation for us that we are on the right track and we are happy to be through to gold fleet to start tomorrow."
The pair have trained hard since the 470 Europeans which took place in Italy in mid-July, including onsite training in La Rochelle over the past three weeks. "We have improved massively since Formia," continued Cook. "I think for me now I have a good handle on most of the tasks and what we are trying to achieve at certain moments, so that was the key to get my confidence up so that I would know what we are trying to achieve on every point of the course. As it turns out, my feel has been relatively good from the get go, so to now get the results is really exciting for us." The team advance through to the finals stage in 12th on the leaderboard.
470 Women Results after Day 2: (top ten)
1. Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron (FRA) – 3 pts
2. Xiaomei Xu/Chunyan Yu (CHN) – 6 pts
3. Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) – 9 pts
4. Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL) – 10 pts
5. Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh McIntyre (GBR) – 13 pts
6. Afrodite Kyranakou/Anneloes van Veen (NED) 17 pts
7. Annika Bochmann/Elisabeth Panuschka (GER) – 21 pts
8. Xiaoli Wang/Xufeng Huang (CHN) – 21 pts
9. Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Barbachan (BRA) – 22 pts
10. Renata Decnop/Isabel Swan (BRA) – 22 pts
Racing is scheduled to start at 1400 hours with the 470 Men and Women gold fleets on course area alpha, and all other fleets on course area bravo.
Championship Format
The Championship format splits the 470 Men into three fleets and the Women in two, to race the qualification stage of 5 races over two days, with one discard. After the qualifying stage, the 470 Men teams will be split into gold, silver and bronze fleets, based on their position on the leaderboard, and carry forward (C/F) their leaderboard position into the finals stage of 7 races over three race days. A second discard will be allowed during the finals stage, but not the C/F score. Scoring is 0 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and so on during the qualification and finals stage. The top 8 in each fleet will then proceed to the medal stage on Saturday 10 August for a single Medal Race with a double points score, where 1st equals 2 points, 2nd equals 4 points and so on.
About the 470 Class 50th Anniversary Celebrations
From 29 July to 10 August, there will be back to back racing in La Rochelle to celebrate the past, current and future generations of 470 sailors and sailing. Organized in collaboration between the International 470 Class Association, Société des Régates Rochelaises, AS470 France and the Federation Francaise de Voile get ready for two weeks of thrilling racing, a concourse d'elegance of some of the earliest built 470s, the launch of the 470 Great Book, Legends' Trophy, 50 Year Cup, Gala Dinner and much more - wrapping up on 10 August with the Closing Ceremony for the 2013 470 World Championships.
worlds.470.org
Winning day for Australian sailors at 470 World Championship (from Craig Heydon, Yachting Australia)
Australian sailors have enjoyed a strong second day of the 2013 470 World Championship in La Rochelle, France, with crews recording wins in both the men's and women's competition.
Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan recorded a third win in the men's fleet to ensure they would finish the qualification series first overall while Elise Rechichi and Sarah Cook picked up their first World Championship race win as they continue to work their way up the leader board.
Belcher and Ryan's win in the opening race on Tuesday put them in the unique position where they didn't have to complete the last qualification race to hold onto their top position heading into the finals series.
"It's not every day that you get to miss a race at a major championship," said Belcher. "It's now the third time we've missed a race with the new scoring format and it still feels a little strange to sail home when the teams are racing but we decided to rest and get ready for tomorrow's racing."
Ryan said that the pair feel that they're in a good position heading into the finals series and are looking forward to the challenge of lining up against all the top crews for the first time.
"It was good to get through the qualification and be in the best spot possible," said Ryan. "We had two very different days conditions wise which was good for our understanding of the venue. It was also very good to get back into regatta mode as the Europeans was our last event almost two months ago.
"The Worlds is always a long event so the opportunity to sit out the final race was very good," he said. "It's good for the bodies and good for the confidence as well, but the real racing starts tomorrow and the regatta virtually starts again, just three times harder as we have all the top boats in the same fleet now.
"Tomorrow we've got two races in the afternoon again but it's very much about taking each race as it comes for Mat and I. I think we're comfortable with how we're sailing but the next few days will be about continuing to adapt to the tricky conditions, trying to be consistent and hopefully by Friday we'll be in a position to fight for the win," said Ryan.
Alexander and Patrick Conway finished the day in 24th position, qualifying for the gold fleet following a 14th and a 24th.
Matthew and Robert Crawford are currently 39th overall, with Scott Cotton and Tom Potter 83rd.
Elise Rechichi and Sarah Cook got their second day of World Championship racing together off to a perfect start, winning the day's opening race.
The pair then finished 10th in race two to end the qualification series in 12th overall, progressing through to the gold fleet for the finals.
"We're feeling happy about where things finished up at the end of qualification," said Cook. "The main task was to make gold fleet, but then obviously with as high a ranking as possible to start off the finals series with fewer points in the 'carry-forward' race. So 12th overall is a reasonable place for us to begin.
"We were happy with the win in race one and enjoyed the conditions we faced today which were considerably lighter than yesterday," she said. "We were a little too conservative though in the second race and really paid for it off the start. It made it a real battle to work our way back up to finish 10th. We're looking forward to starting the finals series tomorrow and racing a bit more aggressively. The conditions forecast look like they should play to our strengths, so I'm excited to see what we can do over the next seven races."
Rechichi and Cook will be joined in the gold fleet by fellow Australians Jacqueline Gurr and Amelia Catt who ended day two in 24th.
Gurr and Catt were 13th in race one on Tuesday and 11th in race two in their first World Championship together.
Sasha and Jaime Ryan ended the qualification series in 31st overall, with Lucy Shephard and Aurora Paterson 46th.
Both NZL Sailing Team crews well placed as qualification rounds conclude (from Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand)
Day two of the 2013 470 World Championships has drawn to a close with the qualifying rounds complete and both NZL Sailing Team crews are well placed as they carry forward their ranking to the finals rounds which kick off in La Rochelle, France tomorrow.
Ending day two in 4th place Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie will start the finals series with four points while Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox racing in the Men's division have retained 3rd place overall giving them a carry forward of three points.
Coach Hamish Willcox explains the scoring; "The overall place they finish after the qualification phase becomes a non discard race to be counted for one of eight races in the gold fleet finals over the coming three days. Effectively these two days of 5 races count for just one race in the end... good practice but with little bearing to the final result."
Light winds kept all sailors ashore initially on day two at the World Championships regatta, increasing later in the day just enough for racing to take place although there were plenty of general recalls across the fleets.
The Women managed two races in which Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie finished 18th and 8th seeing them relinquish their early lead. Their French rivals Camille Lecointre and Mathilde Geron were the best performers of the day and they progress to the finals in the top spot with China's Xiaomei Xu and Chunyan Yu in 2nd and Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark of Great Britain in 3rd.
"Bit of a tougher day today," report Aleh and Powrie.
They describe today's conditions; "We were delayed for a few hours onshore due to lack of wind, and we finally got out around 3pm. The wind was quite light, there was a bit of current running and the chop really got up by the end."
"We had a rather dreadful first race, we didn't quite get off the start line and after that there just very few passing lanes and any little mistake got compounded. The next race was a little better, we only really got the speed going halfway up the first leg - which was a little late, but at least we were still in the mix. So not the best day at all, but some lessons learnt and we take a 4th place forward as our 'carry forward' first race. So the real regatta starts tomorrow."
Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox returned another two excellent race results on day two despite the tricky, choppy conditions to retain 3rd overall at the end of the qualifying phase.
Coach Hamish Willcox reports from La Rochelle; "The boys got a 3rd and a 2nd which was the second best performance of the day behind Argentina's Lucas Calabrese. The Aussie boys (Belcher and Ryan) did not have to sail the last race to go through with first place into final. France (Leboucher and Leberre) will go through in 2nd and Paul and Dan will carry a 3rd into final."
"There are some good teams with high qualifying points and these points cannot be dropped. It all starts tomorrow with the Gold fleets announced and both Men gold and women gold now sailing on the same course out to sea on Alpha."
Two more kiwi teams are racing in the Men's Championship; Francisco Lardies and Luke Stevenson are lying 57th at the start of finals racing, Richard Power and John Power are placed 94th.