RS:X World Championships in Cadiz, Spain

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RS:X World Championships in Cadiz, Spain - Day 4

by Icarus Sailing Media 26 Mar 2012 07:45 BST 20-29 March 2012

Day 4 of the RS:X World Championships © RS:X Class

Ballistic winds on the Bay of Cadiz

In a break from normal practice, the RS:X men's gold fleet was accompanied by their compadres in the silver fleet for the first day of the final series in the 2012 RS:X World Windsurfing Championships. It was Przemyslaw Miarczynski [POL] who was the most consistent posting 1-2-5 to move up the rankings to take over 6th spot overall.

But tonight it is Dorian van Rijsselberge [NED] who is #1 with Julien Bontemps [FRA] in second and Byron Kokkalanis [GRE] in third. These three excelled in the ballistic winds on the Bay of Cadiz. Gusting into the mid 30s, racing today was a test of will power and determination not to mention supreme sailing skills in the tight slalom end section of the course before the finish.

Alessandra Sensini [ITA] reveled in the conditions with a 2-3-1 almost matching Lee Korzits [ISR] who is the clear leader as I write with a 1-1-2. But, there was an incident on the last downwind of the last race today [7th overall] as they fought side by side for the lead. We wait on the jury's decision. Meanwhile Zofia Klepacka [POL] is well placed in second.

Let's take a look the battle for Olympic qualification places. Some are already guaranteed. Lilian de Geus [NED] and Farrah Hall [USA] qualified for the women's gold fleet. They cannot fall back into the silver fleet now so they can focus on each other.

Below 14 countries are fighting for 5 places. Jazmin Lopez [ARG], Tatiana Bazyuk [RUS], Ingrid Puusta [EST], Tansai Napali [THA] look fairly safe with Tansai having a 14 point lead over Carolina Mendelblatt [POR]. She is threatened by Anastasiya Valkevich [BLR] and Demita Vega de Lille [MEX] who could yet upset her Olympic dreams.

Over in the men's fleet, there are 5 qualifying countries who are 'safe' in the gold fleet. They are BLR, BUL, THA, COL, and CZE. Then there is another group at the top of the silver fleet including VEN, EST, DEN and TPE who currently occupy Q places.

They are far from 'safe' Patrik Pollak [SVK] is one point off the back of this group with Oka Sulaksana [INA] with striking distance too. He won a race at the Sydney Olympics and is nurturing a new generation of Indonesian windsurfers by developing a fleet of young sailors on the Techno 293.

There are another nine countries [EGY, DEN, LAT, SWE, SLO, PER, CUB, BER and MKD] who live in hope but must be surely praying for the winds to moderate so the survival conditions are transformed into something more race-able.

Results after Day 5:

Men's Top 5
1. NED8 Dorian van Rijsselberge 18pts
2. FRA6 Julien Bontemps 19pts
3. GRE8 Byron Kokalanis 20pts
4. GBR1 Nick Dempsey 20pts
5. NZL151 JP Tobin 23pts

Women's Top 5 
1. ISR1111 Lee Korzits 8pts
2. POL8 Zofia Klepacka 12pts
3. ITA 25 Alessandra Sensini 24pts
4. POL7 Maja Dziarnowska 26pts
5. ESP1 Blanca Manchon Dominguez 32pts