49erFX European Championship at Porto - Day 2
by International 49er Class 7 Jul 2015 21:39 BST
6-11 July 2015
It was day 2 of qualifying for the 39 girls teams in the 49er FX, and the Netherlands Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz sit at the top of the leaderboard on equal points with Germany's Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz. For the lightweight German team, today's light winds gave them an important jump on their fellow Germans at the start of their Olympic trials. For the Dutch, however, they are sailing for the sake of being the best they can be, knowing that their chances of qualification for Rio 2016 are all but gone having underperformed at the Dutch trials earlier this year.
"Even if we win this championships or the Worlds, the other Dutch crew have already won the selection, so it's out of our control," says Bekkering. "We have to watch the other crew and see how they do." That other team is Nina Keijzer and Claire Blom, who sit in 26th overall at the moment. They need to secure one of the remaining Olympic berths for their country at the 49er Worlds in Argentina this November.
The Danes, as ever, are right up at the front of the pack with three teams in the top seven. What's slightly surprising is that the winners of the past two European Championships, Ida-Marie Nielsen and Marie Olsen, are the lowest placed of the three. Best of the Danes in 3rd overall are the Schütt sisters, Maiken and Anne-Julie, one point ahead of Sweden's Lisa Ericson and Hanna Klinga.
The big Atlantic swell is making for some exceptionally challenging sailing conditions, and many of the FX crews were complaining of achy knees and burning thighs with all the in-and-out of keeping the boats upright and moving through the ever-changing seascape. Even though Italy's Giulia Conti had a successful outing, sitting in 6th overall with crew Francesca Clapcich, she is praying for more breeze tomorrow. "Come on! I am 30 years old, too old for these boats," she laughed. "My knees need a rest so more wind for stretching the legs would be nice."
Wednesday sees the FX fleet complete qualifying to determine who goes into Gold and Silver fleet finals. For the 49ers, it's day two of qualifying. With a forecast of slightly more breeze, perhaps Conti and the other skiff athletes will be able to stretch their legs after all.
For all the event details, highlights, interviews, results, photos, tracking and more, head to 49er.org/event/2015-european-championship