Mat Belcher/Will Ryan continue to dominate the 470 Men World Rankings, but the competition is edging further up the leaderboard, whilst in the 470 Women Great Britain’s Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh Mcintyre become the new world #1 pairing a career best for the team. Released on Monday 3 February, the ISAF Sailing World Rankings calculate a team’s best 6 results over the previous 12 months, calculated on a rolling basis. Of those six results, a team may only count three results from the ISAF Sailing World Cup.

470 Men
Mat Belcher/Will Ryan's undefeated run in the Men's 470 came to an end at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, as they finishing in silver medal position. Nonetheless they still maintain their World #1 spot in the ISAF World Rankings, a position Belcher has held since October 2012 – he briefly dipped dipping to #2 in September 2012, but prior to that had been #1 since August 2010.

But a major boost to France’s Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion (FRA) who came out on top in Miami and as a result move up to World #3 from World #6, a personal best for the French pair, after first moving into the top 10 in June last year.

Holding firm as the World #2 team are Argentina’s Lucas Calabrese/Juan de la Fuente, with only 2 points separating them from the French.

With several 200 point regattas under their belt, including top ten finishes from Miami, Luke Patience/Joe Glanfield (GBR) and Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) climb to World #6 and World #7 respectively, and Croatia’s Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic drop off the World #3 slot to 4#.

470 Women
ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami winners Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh Mcintyre (GBR) moved up to World #1 in the Women's 470 rankings for the first time in their short time as a partnership. The edged into the top 10 in April last year, and have been steadily improving their ranking after a string of top 5 finishes. They were the dominant team in Miami and victory in their first 200-point regatta together pushed them ahead of previous ranking leaders, Lara Vadlau/Jolanta Ogar (AUT), who finished third in Miami.

Vadlau/Ogar drop to World #2 and moving up to World #3 and another career best ranking are the USA’s Annie Haeger/Briana Provancha. Aside from a 15th place finish at the 470 Worlds last year, the pair have consistently finished inside the top 10 at every ISAF graded event they have contested since January 2012 – so a deserved move on up for this pair.

Regattas meeting the criteria are awarded a grade by the Sail Rankings Sub-committee. The grades are either a 200-point event, 100-point event or a 50-point event.

How do the ISAF Sailing World Rankings Work
Events meeting the criteria are awarded a grade of either a 200-point event, 100-point event or a 50-point event. The ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas, ISAF Sailing World Championships and Olympic Class World Championships are typically 200-point events. Olympic Class World Championships (not compliant with 200-point criteria), continental championships (not held as part of a 200-point event) and other major international events using Olympic equipment are 100-point events.

• 200-points - ISAF Sailing World Cup, Olympic class World Championships, ISAF Sailing World Championships;
• 100-points - Olympic Class World Championships (not-compliant with 200-point criteria), Olympic class Continental Championships and Other major international events using Olympic equipment;
• 50-points - Olympic Class Continental Championships, other international events using Olympic equipment (not compliant with 100-point criteria).

More Information:
470 Men Rankings
470 Women Rankings
ISAF Rankings Information
ISAF Rankings news

Image: Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh Mcintyre © Thom Touw