11 Jun 2009
Strong Gusty Winds Bring Action At 470 Europeans
© Organizing Committee
2009 Open 470 Class European Championships for Men/Mixed and Women
5-14 June, Lake Traunsee - Austria
The Open 470 Class Championships for Men/Mixed and Women went into it’s fourth day today, finally with the qualifiers completed for the men’s event. In a total contrast compared to the days before, wind came, and built to over 25 knots with strong gusts and wicked shifts. Harada Ryunosuke Yoshida Yugo (JPN) take over the lead from Croatia in the men’s event, Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) retain the lead in the women’s.
Today’s main objective was to finalize the qualifiers in the men’s 470 event. A serie of at least six races should have been completed on Wednesday already, but because of bad wind conditions, the qualifying series were extended to today.
Just like the days before, it was waiting for wind until in the early afternoon. Totally unexpected, it was going to be another day, with a lot of action in strong, gusty winds over 25 knots. An opportunity for all-rounders and heavy air specialists to take their advantage in this Championship.
Men’s 470 Also a chance for Austria’s Matthias Smid and Florian Reichstaedter to acknowledge their presence to the home public. They win the race in their group, and so did Patryk Piasecki and Marcin Mickiewicz from Poland. With the success of both winners today, they secure their position in the gold fleet in the final series, starting tomorrow.
“Great racing today. We were really waiting for a positive result after having a little deep the last races. Our primary goal was to reach the medal race, and we are now back in the game, with 15 points deficit, what means nothing under this tricky conditions on Traunsee. “ Matthias Schmid said.
Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic form Croatia sail a bad race ending up in 21st position. They lose their three day’s overnight leadership to Harada Ryunosuke Yoshida Yugo from Japan, who didn’t reach the finish today, but use the result as discard.
The difference in points from the #1 leader to rank #20, is only 29 points. In the current situation and the difficult circumstances in mind, gold fleet sailors can still rise and fall.
Women’s 470 Not many changes today on top of the women’s leaderboard. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) extend their lead over Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata (JPN) with a few points. Both ladies who have been leading the women’s fleet in the same order from the beginning of this Championship, finish today’s only race in 5th and 12th position respectively.
Mandy Mulder and Merel Witteveen from the Netherlands maintain their improving results and win today’s race, followed by Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP). The ladies from Spain climb on the leaderboard to a 5th overall position, with only 9 points difference on the Japanese women who take second place.
The local public hoped for some Austrian success in the women’s fleet also. Title defender Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher (AUS) climbed to a 7th position in the overall rankings yesterday, but in today’s only completed race, they were unfortunate in the action of gusts and nasty shifts, and capsized.
”We were not too bad on the way when suddenly we got a puff from the lee ward side. We had no chance to react and capsized. Its a discard in the result but it hurts a bit. Anyway, it is now on us to fight back. We are still in the game and full of hope. The medal race is our main goal.” Sylvia Vogl said.
A second race was sailed today in the women’s fleet in worsening conditions. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol had their prayers answered when they capsized; the race was cancelled short after the incident, because the wind changed direction by 180 degrees.
Racing continues tomorrow, with the action in Austria continuing through until the Medal Races on 14 June. Full results are available at the event web site: http://www.traunseewoche.at/
TOP 10 470 Men
1 JPN 4340 Ryunosuke Harada/Yugo Yoshida 23
2 CRO 83 Fantela Sime / Marenic Igor 30
3 GER 49 Zellmer Lucas / Seelig Heiko 31
4 ITA 2 Zandona Gabrio / Edoardo Mancinelli 35
5 AUS 11 Belcher Mathew / Page Malcolm 35
6 ITA 11 Zeni Fabio / Pitanti Nicola 39
7 GRE 165 Mantis Panagiotis / Kagialis Pavlos 40
8 GRE 1 Kambouridis Panagiotis / Orologas Gerasimos 44
9 FRA 7 Charbonnier Nicolas / Meyer-Dieu Baptiste 44
10 UKR 5 Moshkovskyy Vitaliy / Polishchuk Sergii 46
TOP 10 470 Women
1 ITA 23 Conti Giulia / Micol Giovanna 13
2 JPN 4151 Kondo Ai / Tabata Wakako 20
3 GRE 887 Economou Anthi / Tsigaridi Olga 21
4 NZL 75 Aleh Jo / Powrie Olivia 27
5 ESP 696 Pacheco Tara / Betanzos Berta 29
6 NED 7 Mulder Mandy / Witteveen Merel 30
7 ESP 133 Gallego Marina / Rita Roman Julia 38
8 GER 4983 Bochmann Annika / Lorenz Anika 38
9 AUT 431 Vogl Sylvia / Flatscher Carolina 40
10 DEN 143 Koch Henriette / Sommer Lene 42
For more information and media enquiries, please contact the International 470 Class Association: office@470.org or visit the official International 470 Class web site at: www.470.org
Photos are available online at: www.470.org/gallery