40th Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy at Palma - Day 6
by Corinne Rolland-McKenzie 10 Apr 2009 23:11 BST
5-10 April 2009
Perfect ending for third ISAF World Cup event
The Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy, 3rd event in the ISAF Sailing World Cup, concluded with intense racing in the Medal Race staging the best top ten sailors in each class. The double points, non discardable Medal races’ scores have been determinant to decide the events winners and added some valuable points to the ISAF World Cup standings. The winner in each class is scoring 20 points, the second 19 points and so on until the 20th position who gives a single point.
Bianca Manchon has made the most of the Spanish event, winning six races in the women RS:X, including the Medal race. She adds 20 points to her impressive ISAF Sailing World Cup score now at 58 points! Manchon will be also awarded the “Absolute Winner” prize tonight by Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain. This traditional prize recognised the achievements of the winner with the best results across all classes.
“I’ve sailed like everyday, looking for free wind and tried to stay in the leading group. I have never imagined winning the Absolute Trophy, and I’ve won it! I’ve also won in my class and I’m leading more than ever the ISAF Sailing World Cup.”, says Blanca Manchon!
World number 1 and Miami OCR winner, Marina Alabau (ESP) places second overall in front of Flavia Tartaglini (ITA).
In the Men’s division, Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) wins his second ISAF World Cup event in a row after taking top marks in Miami at the start of the year, increasing his lead on the World Cup standings.
Commenting on the Medal Race, Dorian explains: “This is great, it looks maybe easy but you still have to defend your position under pressure. I look calm but we had a long wait onshore and I was bouncing around. Once on the water I had a really bad start. I needed to work very hard not to get swamped by my opponents. I got squeezed. I dropped back a bit but persisted in my strategy to get to the stronger winds first. Then I was second at the top mark and finished third.”
Medal race winner Mike Dempsey (GBR) takes Bronze behind Brazil’s Riccardo Santos.
In the Laser class, Nick Thompson (GBR) shares the same fate, winner of the second ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Miami, he adds another 20 points to his score to lead the Laser Standings after winning the Princesa Sofia Mapfre trophy today. Mike Bullot from New Zealand is trailing the Brit in the results and the standings after placing second overall in Sail Melbourne and the Sofia Mapfre trophy. Tonci Stupanovic (CRO), who sailed for the first time in Palma, finished in third position in the strong 134 sailors fleet.
The racing was intense and very close in the Laser radial division. Early leader Susana Romero (ESP) needed to keep Paige Railey (USA) within two places to keep the lead. The American raced in the front group while Susana Romero could not come back after an average start to the race. A sixth place for Railey was enough to give Gold to the American, on equal points with Romero.
“This gold medal feels amazing because I just started sailing full-time again in January,” said Railey. “It is the best feeling to come back and put everything I had into this event.”
These strong results were not enough to threatened Anna Tunicliffe’s lead in the ISAF World Cup Standings. The World number one is adding 15 points to her impressive score after winning the two first events.
It will be an all English podium at the Finn prize giving ceremony. The British dominated the Medal Race in the Finn taking the top 4 places, and the top three in the overall standings. Edward Wright took the gun promoted to second overall. Twenty One years old Giles Scott wins his first Finn event at this level.
“This is one of my most memorable regatta! It was pretty nerve wrecking before the start and I found it hard to fight on the water against my teammates.”
Ed Wright collects 19 points for his second position overall which added to his 20 points scored in the Miami OCR keeps him in the lead of the Finn World Cup standings.
There was no surprise regarding the winner in the 470 men division with Charbonnier and Meyer (FRA) securing Gold after the final stage. When asked about their key to success the new team has no hesitation: “Trust! We have know each other for over 12 years and worked together this long. This is probably making up for the lack of training together.” And after such outstanding results, the French know there is still a lot to learn: “We still have margin for improvement, tuning the boat, strong air racing…but the other teams will surely progress fast and will provide good challenges.”
Second place overall goes to Gideon Kliger and Udi Gal from Israel while Anton Dalhberg and Sebastian Ostling get to third overall. The Swedish who started the Medal race in 8th position overall took the bullet and grabbed the Bronze, one point from fourth! The top three enter the World Cup standings after scoring top points in the Princesa Sofia Mapfre trophy.
If the winner in the 470 men division was expected, it was a different story in the Women’s division. Early leaders Ingrid Petitjean and Nadège Douroux (FRA) sailed their worse race to place 10 and drop to 3rd overall. “This is the result after a succession of small mistakes. A bad, start, the wrong side, which leaded to bad decisions! It is a pity because we only had top 8 scores in the fleet races! We sailed well in all type of conditions and were very regular. Even if our objective here was to get back into sailing mode after a long break, it is disappointing to miss the title.”
While the French are on equal points with Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP) who take second overall, the title goes to early leaders Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher from Austria. “We were surprised to win! We knew we had secured a second place but we had not realised that the French were last. We came into the Medal race with the intention to try to secure a second by keeping a close eye on the Spanish. It was a very competitive regatta.” The European champions are adding 20 points to their score, in the lead of the ISAF World Cup standings.
The Austrian 49er team Delle Karth/Resch, won the Medal race to place top 5 overall. Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello (ITA) win their first event after a long break since the Olympic Games. “Finally we had some nice and stable wind for the medal race. We needed to keep close to John Pink and Rick Peacock to protect our lead. Unfortunately we went one way and they went the opposite! So we tried to finish within the top 6.” John Pink and Rick Peacock (GBR) settled for second but take the lead of the ISAF Sailing World Cup with 38 points.
Star European Champions Robert Stanjek and Markus Koy from Germany won the Star event after a streak of regular top 6 places in a small but talented fleet including Athens Bronze medallist Xavier Rohart from France with new crew Pierre-Alexis Ponsot. Aimilios Papathanasiou and Apostoulos Karnoutsos place second overall in their first regatta together. While newly formed team of Diego Negri and Luca Devoti take Bronze.
The 40 Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy concludes with the prestigious prize giving ceremony in presence of the Spanish Royal family, regatta patron.
The event has been highly publicised this year with free TV footage available daily, and tracking system for the Medal race on 4 classes.
The sailors will head tonight for Hyères in the south of France, stage of the fourth ISAF Sailing World Cup event.