49erFX European Championship at Porto - Day 5
by International 49er Class 10 Jul 2015 22:10 BST
6-11 July 2015
Conti & Clapcich hold strong while half their rivals fade
Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich have moved into pole position in the FX women's fleet with one day day to go in Porto at the 49er European Championships.
After a delay waiting for the breeze to build on the Atlantic, the wind finally started blowing at a very steady 10 knots. In the first of the FX Gold Fleet finals races, 2013 World Champions Alex Maloney and Molly Meech got an excellent start off the pin end of the line and opened up a small lead by the first mark. The Kiwis held off an attack by the defending European Champions from Denmark, Ida Nielsen and Marie Olsen, with New Zealand taking the win ahead of the Danes.
At the next start, Nielsen and Olsen won the battle for the middle of the line and launched into the lead out to the left of the course. Like the Kiwis in the previous race, the Danes sailed away and increased their lead to cross the finish line in an easy first place. But, disaster, as Nielsen discovered that her great start was too good to be true. The Danes were disqualified for having started too early, which handed the race win to Italian crew, Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich.
Spurred on by their success, Conti and Clapcich got a good start in the final race of the day and led from start to finish. This time the chasing boat was the Netherlands' Nina Keijzer and Claire Blom but, like the unfortunate Danes in the previous heat, the Dutch were disqualified for starting too early.
Today's three races reshuffled the leaderboard significantly, with previous leaders Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz slipping to 5th overall. New leaders after their two race wins are the Italians, with two Danish teams in 2nd and 3rd, respectively Jena Hansen/Katja Iversen and Maiken & Anne-Julie Schütt.
Saturday sees the women complete their championship with three Gold Fleet races in the morning and a Medal Race finale on the River Douro in the afternoon. For the men it's the penultimate day of Gold Fleet racing. The forecast is for medium airs, and you can watch all the action on the live TV broadcast which is scheduled for the start of racing on Saturday at 10.00am local time. Tune in and watch the drama on 49er.org.
For all the event details, highlights, interviews, results, photos, tracking and more, head to 49er.org/event/2015-european-championship