The competition at Sailing's World Cup Series in Hyères, Francehas reached a critical stage on Friday with Medal Races imminent for the 470 Class on Sunday 30 April.

Overnight, the forecast for racing on Friday was not looking good and Hyères was expected to be on the receiving end of 30knots of breeze, gusting 35. The breeze was strong in the morning and sailing postponed as the conditions were not deemed safe enough to sail. As the day progressed the breeze decreased enabling all but one fleet, the 2.4 Norlin OD, to hit the water.

It was a day of contrasts in the Men's and Women's 470. Blows were exchanged between the leaders in the women's and the men's saw some knock outs.

Still on the same points total, Afrodite Zegers and Annaloes van Veen (NED) and Linda Fahrni and Maja Siegenthaler (SUI) both notched up a bullet and second place to ensure that the Hyères title goes right down to the wire. With one more day of racing before the Medal Race, you wouldn't bet against these two going in to a double points decider neck and neck.

With a perfect two bullet day, Rio 2016 silver medallist's Mat Belcher and Will Ryan now have a 19-point buffer over second placed Carl -Fredrik Fock and Marcus Dackhammar (SWE).

Overnight leaders, Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis have dropped after a 21-22 day which they have to carry. They now sit on 54 compared to the Australians 14 and the reason was simple, "We had really bad starts today," said a despondent Mantis, "We also missed the first shift and when you do both of those you are in trouble. It was such a bad day."

The Greeks will have to recover their composure quickly and return to winning ways just to stay in contention for medals after an impressive opening three days of racing.

Watch the 470 Class Medal Races at #WCSHyeres this weekend. Register for live alerts https://goo.gl/43doQA

Enjoy the Facebook Photo Gallery

Watch the races back on SAP Analytics

Information on how to follow the event is below:

RESULTS / ENTRIES
A full list of sailors registered to sail in Hyères is available to view here - http://manage2sail.com/en-US/event/0adf7bcd-01d0-4214-a295-bb0b9136999e#!/entries?classId=7a9662de-4565-41e3-9008-4025d3177d5e
Results will be available from Tuesday 25 April via the World Cup Series results centre here - http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.php

TRACKING
Live tracking and competitor's analytics will be available via SAP Sailing Analytics throughout the event here - http://swc2017-hyeres.sapsailing.com/

PHOTOGRAPHY
High resolution imagery free for editorial usage will be provided throughout the World Cup Series by Sailing Energy. Imagery will be available to download via - http://worldsailing.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Sailing-World-Cup/C0000IVK9PByLpgw. The password to download is WSimages

TELEVISION
Racing and action shots plus interviews in English and native language will be available throughout World Cup Series.

For further information please contact:
Sabina Mollart Rogerson
M: +44 (0) 7922 140 148
E: smollartrogerson@sunsetvine.com

Medal Races on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 April will be streamed live on World Sailing's Facebook and YouTube Channel.

WCS Hyères - Medal Races - 470, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial
URL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiLMa8QoXWI
Embed - <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ qiLMa8QoXWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PRESS RELEASES
World Sailing will be releasing international press releases after racing throughout the duration of World Cup Hyères. All the latest news and reports will be available to read here - http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/news/index.php

SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow the event on World Sailing's social networks and get involved in the conversation using #WCSHyeres2017
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/worldsailingofficial/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldsailingofficial/
Twitter - @worldsailing
Snapchat - Follow our Story on Snapchat, search for worldsailing

Source: Richard Apsland - World Sailing