Day 4 at Semaine Olympique Francaise

After a day of light and shifty winds, with those at the top of the leaderboard all collecting high scores – but still continuing to hold their places. The 470 Women continue to be led by the Spanish with the French heading up the 470 Men.

470 Women
With two races contested today, Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP) continue to sail away in the 470 Women, 26 points ahead of the Italians Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol.

Emmanuelle Rol and Hélène Defrance (FRA) have mastered the day with two victories in what is clearly their preferred conditions, which gives them three race wins in a row as they wrapped up the final race of Tuesday as well. They are the defending winners of Semaine Olympique Francaise and are now back in touch with the leaders in fifth place.
“We were comfortable in today’s conditions, We took good starts. This gave us confidence especially after our difficult start in the event. We couldn’t afford any more mistakes.” Rol commented as she referred to their disastrous results of 52, 34 in the opening races 1 and 2.

Rounding out the top three are the new British pairing of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark who posted a 12,10 to move up from fourth, and knock down their teammates Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes (GBR) to fourth.

Further down the leaderboard, Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata of Japan posted their best result of the series, with a second in race 9 to help shift them back up into the top 10.

A surprise second place in race 8 went to China's Huimin Feng and Lizhu Huang. A new team on the international scene, their form so far has been towards the back third of the fleet, but today they showed they have the ability to deliver amongst the pressure at the front of the fleet.. There are five Chinese teams competing in Hyeres, with the top place team so far being Xiaoli Wang and Xufeng Huang in sixteenth overall.

Top Women 10 Overall

470 Men
Two more races in the 470 men fleet in tricky conditions which contributed to the high scores at the top of the leaderboard. Nicolas Charbonnier and Jeremie Mion (FRA) discard a place of #27 in today's opening race 7, which was balanced by a second place in race 8. Mixed results as well for Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos (FRA) who scored a fourth and forty-third to hold firm in second, ten points behind the leaders. Slightly more consistency for the Aussie pairing of Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) who posted 12, 33 to hold firm in the bronze medal position, 5 points behind Leboucher and Garos.

Today's opening race win went to Panagiotis Kampouridis and Efstathios Papadopoulos of Greece, which combined with a seventh place in race 8 has stepped up their campaign to move them into seventh overall on the leaderboard, up from ninth.

The Croatian pairing of Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic won race 8, which has helped move them up one position to sixth overall.

Top 10 Men Overall

Check out our photo gallery on Facebook - courtesy of onsite 470 photographer Thom Touw.

Full report and results on the Event Website.

More Information:
470 Men Results
470 Women Results

Top Image: Downwind Action © Thom Touw