ON DAY TWO IN PALMA MATHEW BELCHER/WILLIAM RYAN (AUS) AND NOYA BAR-AM/NINA AMIR (ISR) LEAD THE WAY
03 Apr 2018At the 49 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Iberostar Olympic classes regatta on the Bay of Palma Australians Mat Belcher and Will Ryan return to the 470 after a six month break and today climbed to the top of the 470 Men's leaderboard after a 3,1 in what proved to be relatively light airs during their two heats.
The duo, Olympic silver medallists in Rio, current World Champions and class winners here in 2016, maintain they are here to shed any ring rustiness and check in with the strong fleet here, but they appeared to be right into their stride.
"It was a bit lighter than we expected. We started the race in about 15kts and then it died away quickly. So it was a light wind day and so because we have not raced in six months it is good to be back. We feel quite fresh if a little bit rusty and we are here in a big fleet to learn our lessons early on in the season rather than later when it becomes more critical." double Olympic medallist and five times World Champion Belcher noted.
"We did not really know what to expect here, it is our chance to be back racing in the boat. We have done a little training but not much."
"I have been doing some 'real work' at home doing developing some residential buildings which is a bit of a change from this. Will has been racing the M32s. We will do Hyeres and then head back to Australia for a bit. I think we will miss the Europeans but we will see how we go."
In 470 Women's fleet Noya BAR-AM/Nina AMIR duo from Israel lead the way together with Linda FAHRNI/Maja SIEGENTAHLER (SUI) with 8 points, separated by just one point from Nadine BOEHM/Ann-Christin GOLIASS (GER).
Results
Source: http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org