Japan Holds Tight in 470 Women, Leaderboard Changes in 470 Men

The third day of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia MAPFRE was not the easiest one. Opposite winds and unsettled conditions made life difficult for sailors and race committees. Some classes managed to complete their first race in the north-easterly and waited for the wind to turn into a sea breeze to continue with remaining races. In the 470 women, the changed occurred during the first race. As a result some sailors didn't make it to the finish line within the time limit. Tonight, the jury room was busy with requests for redress.

With six races completed in each of the 470 Men and Women, all sailors have now discarded their worse race result which will become handy for the leaders who have for most collected a bad race in the last two day's shifty conditions. Scores are very tight at the top, half way through the regatta.

470 Men
The qualifying rounds are now finished for the men who are sailing in two fleets, and the split made for the Gold and Silver. The next battle is on to be amongst the top 10 boats who go through to the Medal Race on Saturday.

Slow and steady has been the motto for Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS), having opened their series fairly low down the leaderboard the team have now put in a bullet, which added to their two second places yesterday has put them just into the lead – on countback over the French. Nicolas Charbonnier and Baptiste Meyer had an equally slow start to the regatta, but have pulled up to second overall.

Dropping down from being overnight leaders to third overall are Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell (GBR) after their 9 and 24 posting today.

Not a good day for several teams today with Nick Rogers and Chris Grube (GBR) posting a 15, 24 and consequently tumbling down the leaderboard from second to eighth. Similarly for the Spanish Olympic hopefuls of Onan Barreiros and Aaron Sarmiento who have dropped from fifth overall yesterday to eleventh at the end of today's racing after posting 23, 16.

Their loss is the gain of several teams including Japan's Ryunosuke Harada and Yugo Yoshida and Tetsua Matsunaga and Kimihiko Imamura who have moved up into the top 10 leaderboard at 6 and 9 respectively.

After their outstanding double-bullet start on the opening day, New Zealand's Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders have been posting double-digit results – and today dropped out of the series top 10 to an unlucky 13 overall. They will need to work hard to secure themselves a place in the top 10 boats going forwards to the Medal Race on Saturday.

All in all a disappointing day for many – as the winds proved challenging.

470 Women
All credit to Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata of Japan who have showed their true grit and talent and have met the challenges of the varying weather conditions to remain at the head of the fleet. They opened the series with two race wins, and have gone to sail consistently to now hold an 11-point margin over the next team, Israel's Gil Cohen and Bouskila Vered.

Holding on to their top three position are the Kiwis Jo Aleh and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher who despite their worst scoring day, still sit confidently in touch with the leaders. Watch their video interview:

Eight different nations are so far filling out the top ten in the 470 Women's fleet and with four races left before the top 10 get split off for the medal race there is much still to play for.

Some new faces scoring race wins today, with Spain's Marina Gallego and Ana Lobo winning race 5, only to post a disastrous 44 in race 6 – virtually wiping out any advantage from their earlier race win. However, they have managed to move up the line-up a few places to 17 overall by the end of today's racing.

Germany secured the second race win of today, which went to Victoria Jurczok and Josephine Bach – who have now moved up four places overall to 28. They are a talent to watch and are the reigning 470 Junior World Champions as well as the bronze medallists at the 2010 Junior Women's European Championships.

Another German team here is the wife of Australia's 470 men helm Mat Belcher, in the form of Friederike Belcher. They met sailing! Friederike is competing with Kathrin Kadelbach and like her husband, Friederike clearly enjoyed the conditions today securing a series best result with a fourth in race 6. However, with the exception of the fourth place, their scoreline is all double-digit so they have significant work ahead of them.

Racing continues through until Saturday.

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More Information:
Event Website
470 Men Results
470 Women Results

Main Image: Close racing at the mark ©  Thom Touw. All images ©  Thom Touw