Reigning World Champions Dominate at Delta Lloyd

Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) and Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED), reigning 470 World Champions, exerted their expertise over the fleet to clinch the titles at the 2011 Delta Lloyd Regatta in some style at yesterday's medal races.

470 Men
With their win at the Delta Lloyd Regatta, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) have returned to the top of the Men’s 470 ISAF Sailing World Cup Standings. With it they are the first team to qualify as part of the Australian Olympic Team - next stop the ISAF Worlds in Perth, where the nation qualification needs to be secured.

The Australians won Race 7 in the morning to take a ten point lead over Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) going into the Medal Race. But it was the Greeks Panagiotis Kambouridis and Efstathios Papadopoulos who won the Medal Race by 50 seconds to clinch the silver medal which delivered them their highest ISAF Grade 1 event finish.

Nonetheless the world #1 ranked Aussie pair did not fail to impress after moving from fourth to second on the final run and surging across the line in a photo finish with Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) and Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE). Fantela and Marenic, who had led for the early part of the event secured the bronze medal.

“The wind was up and down and all over the place. The competition was tight but in the end it worked well. We had many boats close to us in the results so we just sailed our own race.” explained the Australians.

Mat and Malcolm share their secrets to success:

WATCH THE Track and Trace of the 470 Men Medal Race

WATCH THE Live Streaming of the 470 Men Medal Race

Top 10 470 Men Results

470 Women
Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) brought a nine point lead over Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata (JPN) into the Women’s 470 Medal Race. But the Dutch girls had a poor start to the race and found themselves as low as ninth in the fleet.

The duo had to call upon all their experience to climb back up the fleet and after doing so, they sailed conservatively to maintain their position. They crossed the finish line in fourth to clinch the gold medal.

“This is the first regatta for us for a long time so it is great to return like this. The racing was very close. There were lots of opportunities but it was also easy to make mistakes.”

Kondo and Tabata picked up the silver medal to climb up to second in the Women’s 470 ISAF Sailing World Cup Standings.

Martine Grael and Isabel Swan won bronze medal for their first podium finish together – a result they will be pleased with. It was an exceptionally close finish against their Brazilian team mates Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachan - with both teams finishing on equal points, with the silver only secured by Grael and Swan through winning on tiebreak.

Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer finished fifth at the Delta Lloyd Regatta and move up to third place in the Women’s 470 Standings on 51 points.

Lobke and Lisa talk about how they achieved their ultimate domination at Delta Lloyd Regatta:

WATCH THE Track and Trace of the 470 Women Medal Race

WATCH THE Live Streaming of the 470 Women Medal Race

More Information:
Event Website
Full Results
470 Men – Photo Gallery
470 Women – Photo Gallery

Top Image: Martine Grael and Isabel Swan (BRA) secure the Silver Medal © Thom Touw. Middle Image: Mat and Malcolm with coach victor. Bottom Image: 470 Women Medallists © Delta Lloyd Media