Sailing at Rio 2016 Day 6: The battle for Laser & Radial medal race slots
by Mark Jardine 13 Aug 2016 21:48 BST
8-18 August 2016
To say the Laser sailing at Rio 2016 is tight is an huge understatement. Anyone who watched the live coverage today and saw the windward mark rounding on the Niterói course will have seen just how intense the racing is.
The smallest of shifts can make the difference between rounding 1st or 30th and the tactics have to be spot-on to avoid getting a high number on the results table. No wonder only two helms so far have managed to keep all their results in the top 20. There's no point thinking about going for the race win, a top ten is a very good position, as demonstrated by the overall results table where the leaders are averaging 9th.
So concentrating on the race winners at this later stage of the event shouldn't be the focus. Race 9 was won by Belgium's Wannes Van Laer, who hadn't had a result in the top ten before today and is 17th overall. The key was how many more points the leaders picked up. Brazilian legend Robert Scheidt was the one who came out worst in race 9 picking up 26 points. He can't discard this as he already has a 27th on his score sheet. Overall leader Tonci Stipanović from Croatia was 7th, Australia's Tom Burton was 11th and Great Britain's Nick Thompson was 6th.
The pressure going into race 10 was huge with the leaderboard so tight. Croatia's Tonci Stipanović finished 3rd, putting him 10 points clear of Tom Burton, who finished 4th in the race. A further 10 points back is New Zealand's Sam Meech who won the final race of the main series.
Great Britain's Nick Thompson is tied on points with Brazil's Robert Scheidt after a 22nd, 10 points off 3rd. It is still possible for either of them to win bronze but they'll have to have a fantastic medal race and hope that Sam Meech has a shocker.
Laser Radial
It's the business end of the Laser Radial regatta and every point counted on the Pão de Açúcar course for those trying to get into the top ten double-point medal race. Ireland's Annalise Murphy put Friday's relatively poor performance behind her with a 6th & 7th to put her in 3rd going into the Medal Race.
At the top of the leaderboard is the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeester who holds an 8 point lead over Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom.
Great Britain's Alison Young needed a good day to ensure she made the cut. A 6th in race 9 was a great start and a bullet in race 10 was a great way for her to finish the main series. The points gap is too great to medal in the class, but she'll take great confidence from this result.
Both Australia's Ashley Stoddard and USA's Paige Railey also made the medal race in 9th & 10th respectively.
The battle for medals on Monday will be between Bouwmeester, Rindom & Murphy with Belgium's Evi Van Acker and Finland's Tuula Tenkanen also in with an outside chance.
49er
The 49er & 49erFX fleets were playing catch-up after their delayed start yesterday put them behind schedule.
Peter Burling & Blair Tuke weren't anywhere as dominant as on the opening day, but results of 5,2,8,6 keep them in pole position, 3 points ahead of Germany's Erik Heil & Thomas Ploessel. There's a 15 point gap to Denmark's Jonas Warrer & Christian Peter Lübeck in 3rd, who must still be smarting from their course error in race 1, with Ireland's Ryan Seaton & Matthew Mcgovern a further 2 points back. Seaton & Mcgovern had a great race 3, taking the win, but tailed off towards the end of the day.
Defending champions Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen from Australia are in 6th with Great Britain's Dylan Fletcher-Scott & Alain Sign in 12th.
49er FX
Denmark's Jena Hansen & Katja Salskov-Iversen now lead the Women's 49er FX skiff class at the midway point of their main series after a 2,2,4,2 scoreline and being able to discard their disqualification in race 1 where they were over the start line. Brazil's Martine Soffiatti Grael & Kahena Kunze and New Zealand's Alexandra Maloney & Molly Meech are tied on 19 points, 7 behind the Danish team.
The women's skiff racing provided some excellent footage for the live TV stream throughout the afternoon on the Escola Naval course in the 13 knot Southerly wind. The course area was much less patchy and shifty today making for far better racing and viewing.
Great Britain's Charlotte Dobson & Sophie Ainsworth are lying 6th, the USA's Paris Henken & Helena Scutt had a much better day to move up to 9th, but it wasn't such good news for Ireland's Andrea Brewster & Saskia Tidey and Canada's Erin Rafuse & Dannie Boyd who dropped to 12th and 13th respectively.
Finn
The Finns had a Southerly 12 knot breeze on the Ponte course and Great Britain's Giles Scott is really starting to tighten the screw now. A 1st and a 3rd has put given him a 16 point lead after 8 races over Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar.
Australia's Jake Lilley had a good day with 3rd & a 5th to end the day in 3rd, but New Zealand's Josh Junior is 13th after a poor race 7 and USA's Caleb Paine is 15th overall after a 17th & 7th today and having to county all his results due to his disqualification in race 6.
Nacra 17
The Nacra 17 fleet were out on the ocean on the Copacabana course and the leaders all had a tricky day in the South Easterly breeze. The Australian pair of Jason Waterhouse & Lisa Darmanin finished 15,11,11 for the day but have held onto their position at the top of the leaderboard as Ben Saxton & Nicola Groves finished 13,12,16 today, dropping to 3rd.
The big gain overall was made by the Argentinian pair of Santiago Lange & Cecilia Carranza Saroli who finished 1,6,9 and have jumped into 2nd overall. The best performers of the day were French favourites Billy Besson & Marie Riou with a 2,1,1 scoreline. Their poor start to the event keeps them in 7th overall, but they are by no means out of contention now, just 16 points off the lead.
Lots of photos from today's racing to follow as soon as possible.
Read all the Rio 2016 news, see the schedule and find useful links at www.yachtsandyachting.com/rio2016