PORTUGAL AND TURKEY SECURED THE LAST OLYMPIC SLOTS IN THE 470 CLASS
12 Mar 2021The Portuguese sailors Pedro and Diogo Costa secured today the qualification for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 occupying the only slot still available for the men’s 470 class. The day was also decisive for Turkey that secured the last slot for women in the same class.
For the Portuguese, a 10th place in the 1st race of the day at the World Championship in Vilamoura, Portugal, was enough to overcome the Swiss team in the fight for the Olympic place.
"It is the 1st time we have achieved the qualification for the Olympic Games, it is the crowning achievement of the work that started in 2016, after we won the 420 world championship. We end with this very happy moment" said Pedro Costa.
With the wind around 12 knots, allowing great conditions for the practice of the sport, the races of the 5th and penultimate of the competition were close since the 11 races held begin to define the final classifications with many countries deciding in Vilamoura the teams that will represent them in Tokyo 2020.
After the 2 races of the day there were no changes in the main board led by the Swedes Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström each time closer to become world champions.
However, tomorrow, the last day of competition promises a lot of emotion with the final decision depending on the result of the Medal Race.
In this last race only the top 10 boats in the classification participate, with double scores.
The Portuguese duo keeps the 2nd position followed by the Spanish Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez, current leaders of the world ranking and vice world champions in 2019. The Russians Pavel Sozykin and Denis Gribanov, in 4th place, are still able to contest one of tomorrow’s medals.
In the women’s competition the day’s races brought no changes in the leaderboard with the Spanish Silvia Mas Depares and Patricia Cantero Reina keeping the lead for the fourth consecutive day, followed by the Dutch Afrodite Zegers and Lobke Berkhout. The third place is occupied by the Italians Elena Berta and Bianca Caruso
The day was decisive in the attribution of the Olympic slot with Turkey getting in front of Russia and Ukraine, since all 3 countries finished their participation in the world championship today and will not compete in the Medal Race.
In the mixed fleet, Israel’s Gil Cohen and Noam Homri kept their 1st place and Italy’s Maria Vitoria Marchesini and Bruno Festo moved up one place to 2nd. Britons Freya Black and Marcus Tressler now complete the podium.
Mixed crews will be the future of the 470 class and the exclusive format to be adopted after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.