© Sailing Energy/World Sailing
FROM 25 TO 5 KNOTS. ANOTHER CHALLENGING DAY AT SEMAINE OLYMPIQUE FRANÇAISE
26 Apr 2023After two days of Mistral all 10 Olympic classes faced a drop from 25 down to 5 knots of wind and a long and light third day of racing to reach their minimum number of races to make the first qualification cut.
The leading boats will now comet together in gold fleet as they seek to qualify for the medal races on Saturday.
The race track was the same, the skies were blue and the sun shone all day in the Bay of Hyères, but the pressure was entirely different. The morning fleets were welcomed by 6-8 shifty south-westerlies, which dropped further by lunchtime and racing continued into the evening.
470 (mixed double-handed dinghy)
Three races today
The 470s win the medal for the longest day on the water after starting in the morning and finishing in the evening to get their three races for the minimum five in total for qualification.
Jordi Xammar- Hernandez, Spain’s Tokyo bronze medallist in the last all-male 470 event, now partnered with Nora Brugman, kept the overall lead with 12, 3, 2 finishes in yellow fleet. Portugal’s Beatrice Gago & Rodolfo Pires thrived in the light finishing 3, 5, 1 in the blue fleet.
But others struggled and France’s Hippolyte Machetti and Aloïse Retornaz, (a bronze medallist in Tokyo in the women’s 470), who were second here last year, suffered the biggest drop from 2nd to 12th overall with 13, 14, 13 finishes.
Results