470 Medals hanging in the balance
by Andy Rice, World Sailing 17 Aug 2016 17:32 BST
15 August 2016
Everyone is still buzzing from an extraordinary Tuesday that produced so much drama. The action on the 470 race courses was pretty significant too, but it barely made the headlines against all the other excitement going on in the Medal Races. However, today is the day for the 470 Men and Women to shine as they contest their Medal Races on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) course.
Trouble is, it's not a great looking forecast. The temperature's going to be about 29 degrees Celsius and the wind is looking very light and patchy for this afternoon. Yesterday's wind came in better than expected, and we've got fingers crossed for the same to happen later today.
Women's Two Person Dinghy - 470
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) have already won the Women's 470 gold medal with the Medal Race to spare, but behind the British it's shaping up to be an intriguing battle for silver and bronze.
A few protests last night have shaken up the running order. A disqualification from race eight has relegated Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO) from the bronze medal position down to seventh overall and with a much slighter chance of a medal. A disqualification from race 9 has dropped the double World Champions Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar (AUT) out of medal contention altogether.
The team that have endured some brutal moments in an otherwise stellar week are the 2012 Olympic Champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL). Despite counting a disqualification in their scores, some excellent results including four race wins see the Kiwis in silver medal position on the leaderboard. However, so close are the points that they go into the double-points Medal Race effectively tied with Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA) and reigning World Champions Camille Lecointre and Hélène de France (FRA).
Just two points back are Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) and Afrodite Zegers and Anneloes van Veen (NED) are still well within striking distance.
Men's Two Person Dinghy - 470
If Stu McNay and David Hughes (USA) can win the Medal Race and the Australians finish last, the Americans will just sneak the bronze medal. Apart from that unlikely but not impossible scenario, the 470 Men's medals are wrapped up by the top three teams in the standings. It's just a matter of who wins what between Croatia, Greece and Australia.
Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) have been the class act of this four-year-cycle up until the start of this year. But in this Olympic year, Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) have since become the ones to beat after winning a number of major regattas including the 2016 World Championships. Most people still had the Aussies pegged as favourites going into these Games, but the Croatians have been exceptional in Rio, a sixth place being the worst score they have carried through from the ten-race qualifying series. After seeing their fellow countryman Tonci Stipanovic win Croatia's first ever medal in sailing yesterday, these childhood friends are looking to see if they can improve on Laser silver with a historic 470 gold.
Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) have come on strong towards the end of the week and sit 11 points off the lead. Just two points behind them are the Australians so a case of who beats who to determine which of these crews gets the nicer medal.