470 World Championship at Sdot Yam Sailing Club, Israel - Day 2
by Andy Rice 25 Oct 2022 17:57 BST
24-29 October 2022
Deutschland dominates despite a difficult day
Germany enjoyed an exceptional end to qualifying after a dominant performance on day two of 470 World Championship in Sdot Yam, Israel. With the wind shifting unpredictably, few teams were able to string together a consistent performance, but somehow two teams from Germany bucked the trend.
Overnight leaders Luise Wanser & Philipp Autenrieth (GER) surged further into the overall lead when they won their opening heat of the two-race session. Although a 7th in the next race was not quite so stellar, it was respectable enough to keep the Germans in the overall lead with a 3 point gap to an Austrian team, Lara Vadlau & Lukas Mahr (AUT) whose metronomic performance lifts them to 2nd overall.
Metronomic
No team has quite managed to keep all five qualifying race scores in the top 10, but the Austrians have come closest with results of 11,2,4,3,5. While they're not quite beating the Germans overall on discard, with all scores counting the Austrians have finished top of qualifying. "Our coach told us from the beginning to be really consistent, to avoid any big mistakes, and so far we have managed that," said Vadlau, the 2014 women's World Champion. "We're in a good space and we have a good feeling going into the gold fleet."
Wanser was smiling and relaxed after another day well done. "It was so hectic out there, so shifty, so gusty, and today was like a hundred times more tricky and crazy than yesterday, so we're happy to come away with another race win and a seventh. We're enjoying it, living on the edge, you have to have some fun in your life," she laughed. Who wouldn't, when you're leading an Olympic class World Championship?
Double bullet day
The biggest rising stars of day two were another German team, Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort (GER) who scored two bullets on their side of the qualifying split. This tall, powerful team are always fast in the stronger breeze but today was also about sailing smart and this German crew sailed fast and smart to earn their two race victories. This lifts them to third overall, 2 points back from the Austrians.
Diesch put the strong German performance down to good training between the five-boat squad. "There's a lot of teamwork between us, five boats challenging each other. Everyone has their own set of strengths in different conditions which is making all of us better," he said.
Pretty much level pegging with Diesch & Markfort in fourth and fifth place respectively are two Asian teams, Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) and Jianyong Xu & Yahan Tu (CHN).
Mother knows best
At the end of day one, two French superstars, Camille Lecointre & Jérémie Mion (FRA), were back in 24th overall. After scores of 4,3 this afternoon, the new pairing had hauled themselves up to 10th overall. Lecointre, an Olympic medallist from the past two Games has only teamed up with 2018 men's 470 World Champion Mion a few weeks ago. She gave birth to her second child just three months ago, and so training time has been limited and this is the new team's first regatta together. All things considered, a very good day out.
At the end of qualifying, as ever there are some high-profile casualties that have missed the cut for the top 30 and the start of gold fleet competition on Wednesday. Missing out by a single point are former women's World Champion Ai Kondo (JPN, sailing with Naoya Kimura) and 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Isabel Swan (BRA, sailing with Henrique Haddad).
Back to school
Further down in 38th place overall is Swan's former helm, Fernanda Oliveira, also an Olympic bronze medallist and six-time Olympian for Brazil. "I am six times at the Games, two children, one husband, and I'm nearly 42 years old," smiled Oliveria, disappointed with her day but realistic about expectations. "This is a tough fleet and I haven't raced since Tokyo last year so we have to go back to learning all over again. It's always this way when you bring a new team together. But I still enjoy it. I've been sailing the 470 since I was 15, so this class is a big part of my life."
For Wednesday, principal race officer Nino Shmueli is once again prepared to wait for conditions to settle down tomorrow afternoon before sending the gold and silver fleets out for two races. Wednesday is also the first day for live tracking and live broadcast of the racing, which you can find at www.sport5.co.il/articles.aspx?FolderID=6045&docID=418043
To get all the news, photos and updates from the racing, go to 2022worlds.470.org