Australia and France on top after another beautiful day at the 2013 470 Championships
AUSTRALIA AND FRANCE ON TOP AFTER ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY AT THE 2013 470 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Another glamorous day of racing at the 470 European Championships in Formia, Italy. The breeze filled in right on cue across the race track as the fleet were leaving the boat park to deliver around 17 knots of steady pressure for racing. Two races across all three fleets, with the 470 Men wrapping up the Qualification Stage today, whilst the 470 Women continue to sail a single series, through until the Medal Stage on Saturday.
470 WOMEN All change at the front of the fleet as France's 2012 Olympic team of Camille Lecointre/Mathildre Geron sealed two race wins to jump ahead of the Kiwis Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie.
After dominating in yesterday's races Aleh/Powrie had a few technical challenges.
"We are not too sure to be honest," reflected Powrie on the reason for their change in pace between yesterday and today.
"There is not much difference between winning and being off the pace," added Aleh. "We got one of the beats pretty wrong today and that didn't help. The boat isn't quite set up right and we will be checking everything this evening."
Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh Mcintyre continue their steady and strong pace, to finish in second behind the French. These top three teams have now already established a helpful 15 point lead over the result of the fleet.
Double-Olympic gold medallist in 2004 and 2008 in the women's keelboat event Sarah Gosling (nee Webb) is coaching Weguelin/Mcintyre and easily admitted she would rather have been racing today. "It is a wicked sport on days like this and I felt really jealous. They had an awesome day and were on fire, so I was very pleased from the coach boat. On days like today, you always want to be out on the water. They were absolutely perfect racing conditions."
Still recovering from illness are Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar, but racing seems to cancel out their sickness, as the team have moved up to 5ht on the leaderboard. Ogar explained, "I am still a little ill, but of course when you are racing there is lots of adrenalin and I feel nothing."
"We are quite happy, because today there was a lot of wind which is not our preferred conditions and we were pretty fast and very happy. We made some technical mistakes but the results are OK. But, we must work much more and focus on these."
An unfortunate port/starboard incident at the start of the day's first 470 women race put two boats out of action, with Israel's Gil Cohen/Danielle Maman and Greece's Despoina Stefanoudaki/Rafailina Klonaridou forced to head ashore. Damage for both boats which hopefully can be repaired overnight.
Two races are scheduled for the 470 Women fleet on Wednesday.
