Consolidation as Teams Advance to the Medal Race in Palma

After a stunning day in Palma racing at the 42 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia – Mapfre, the third event on the 2010-2011 ISAF Sailing World Cup, the top 10 470's in the mens' and women's fleets advancing to Saturday's Medal Race are now determined. However, whilst most teams would aspire to be in the top 10, for many that is not their current objective and to achieve a top 20 or 50 place or improve on past performances is the target.

After light winds this morning, all classes were racing by 1300 hours local time in a 10-14 knot breeze.

470 Men
Seven nations make it into the top 10 for tomorrow's Medal Race, led by France. Another good day was on the cards for Nicolas Charbonnier and Jeremie Mion (FRA) as having secured the number one slot yesterday they just needed to consolidate today – and they did. A 2, 15 posting was enough to keep them sweet leading the pack by 9 points. However, with results converted to double-points tomorrow they could easily find themselves out of medal contention. However, at this stage, a top 5 finish tomorrow and the first overall remains in their hands. A finish outside of the top 5 and things could be dramatically different.

“Today was good for us,” admitted Charbonnier, “we have increased the points with the seconds.” For the newly formed team, the Princesa Sofia MAPFRE was also the occasion to tune their act together. “We have learned a lot here, especially the areas where we have to work to better our sailing. So it is a very positive week.”

Their team mates Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos are just 9 points adrift, with the reigning 470 European Champions Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis in third. Back up in podium contention are Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell (GBR) who have really had an erratic performance here – going from three consecutive race wins on race days 2 and 3, to some double digit results when the lighter airs came in which pushed them down the scoreboard.

While seven teams have a chance for a medal, only the top four can go for Gold.

Japan's Ryunosuke Harada and Yugo Yoshida put in some stunning sailing today to shift up a gear and move into the top 10 with a 6,7 posting. They opened the series some way down the fleet, finding themselves in 21st after day 2, up into 6th on day 3, back down to unlucky 13th on day 4 and now back into seventh.

In total 84 470 men's teams from 28 nations are here in Palma.

470 Women
It has been cat and mouse in the 470 women fleet today. After race 9, Japan were back leading the pack just ahead of New Zealand, but a second place result in the final race 10 put New Zealand back in the lead.

A really stunning result for Jo Aleh who is sailing with stand in crew Bianca Barbarich-Bacher, whilst Polly Powrie recovers from a leg injury. They have a reasonable points margin over the second placed Japanese and as long as they finish tomorrow's Medal Race in the top 4 they have victory in their hands. A New Zealand finish in fifth with a win to Japan's Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata will give equal points to both teams, but victory to Japan on countback. In reality the kiwis are virtually assured of a podium finish as they have achieved a sufficient enough points margin – but it is all dependent on the currently fourth placed team of Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes (GBR). If the British pull off a stunner of a race and win, and the Kiwis finish ninth or tenth, the points change will knock them off the podium. It's sailing – anything can happen.

In third overall are Gil Cohen and Bouskila Vered (ISR) who have put in a really great performance here in Palma, wrapping up race 10 with a win.

Nine nations have made it through to the Medal Race, but there will be the usual disappointment for a few teams who went into today's racing in the top 10, but were knocked out including Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (DEN) and Argentina's Fernando Sesto and Consuelo Monsegur. Neither team could stretch their performance enough to hold position. As they moved down, up into the top 10 came Slovenia's Tina Mrak and Teja Cerne to 8th overall and France's Camille Lecointre and Mathilde Geron to 10th overall.

There have been 49 women's teams from 23 nations contesting the 470 Women event.

USA's Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar discusses her game plan going into today's racing:

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More Information:
Event Website
470 Men Results
470 Women Results

Images ©  Thom Touw