Podium places to Japan and New Zealand at the 470 Spring Cup

It was all decided on the last race held at the 2011 470 Spring Cup. Following the weather form of the previous days, the Race Committee waited for the wind to fill in, but with the time limit looming. Eventually with 20 minutes to go to the time limit, the Race Committee got the Gold fleet off, only to have a general recall. Attempt number two gave a clean start, with the Kiwi pairing of Jo Aleh and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher leading the fleet to the first mark, hotly pursued by Ryunosuke Harada and Yugo Yoshida (JPN). They hugged the right hand side of the course, closer to the mountains, which was the right move.

The two teams swapped the lead several times going downwind, although a firm delta was secured by the Japanese as they went through the gate – a lead which they held onto until the finish. For Harada and Yoshida their bullet in that last race changed their regatta significantly, going from fourth to first overall and the gold medal.

Aleh and Barbarich-Bacher continued to put the pressure on, but had to be satisfied with a second place in the final race 9. For them it meant a brilliant result as first women's team and eighth overall. Another great sucess after their win at the Princess Sofia Trophy.

The overnight leaders Tetsuya Matsunaga and Kimihiko Imamura (JPN) put in a poor performance on the penultimate day on Sunday but still managed to retain the lead. Unforutnately for them, another disappointing race yesterday which delivered them their worst result of the series, a 23, pushed them down to third overall and the bronze medal.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (NZL) gave it their all to shift up a few places in the final race, and with it hope that Harada and Yoshida would drop back – as then the Kiwis would secure the gold. But it was not to be and with a fourth place finish in the final race 9, Snow-Hansen and Saunders secured the silver medal just 2 points behind the Japanese.

The second women's team was Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata from Japan in twelth overall after a disappointing final day. Third women's team were Virginia Kravarioti and Olga Tsigaridi from Greece who finished #19.

Coming in fourth overall were Vladimir Chaus and Denis Gribanov of Russia who put in a race finish of fifth, to secure one of their best event finishes.

Disappointment for Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente who had the bronze medal in their hands yesterday, but only managing to deliver a twentieth place in the final race left them way short of the podium.

Seventy two boats from 23 nations competed at the 470 Spring Cup. Next stop for most of the sailors is Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres, event number 4 on the ISAF Sailing World Cup series.

 Final Top 10 Overall

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Top Image: Japan, New Zealand and Argentina battling for the top of the leaderboard © Icarus