49er/49erFX World Championship in Argentina - Day 3
by International 49er Class 19 Nov 2015 07:23 GMT
16-21 November 2015
The qualifying series could not have been more challenging for the teams vying for Gold fleet inclusion, Olympic berths, and Olympic selection.
Starting the day, the teams vying for Olympic berths were huddled at the top of the 49er leaderboard, with 4 out of the top 6 teams looking to qualify their nation. By the end of racing today, 7 nations are looking for the 3 (and possibly up to 5 Olympic berths) with Argentina and Poland both having 2 teams in the hunt.
The real fleet depth in the 49er is on display here in Buenos Aires as only Championship favourites, Burling and Tuke (NZL), are sailing to expectation and at the top of the leaderboard. Many of the rest of the presumed top 10 had to fight hard, right down to the final race just to make gold fleet with Fletcher/Sign (GBR), Outteridge/Jensen (AUS), Seaton/McGovern (IRL), and Warrer/Thomsen (DEN) all in danger of falling out of the Gold fleet split in the final race of the day. Of the bunch, the Brits and Outteridge proved clutch, with Fletcher/Sign winning the final race while Outteridge/Jensen pulled off two second places to close out the qualifying series.
Olympic Berths
Local young guns, the Lange brothers, looking good in their yellow leaders jerseys, sailed a decent day only falling a few places to fourth overall. With their home club looking on, their double-Olympic medalist father in a spectator boat they have proved up to the pressure so far. The first 3 days of the championship have been really unstable, especially for the 49er fleet, and their local knowledge may have come in handy at the most important time.
In the hunt for Olympic berths are the two favored nations, Germany and Poland. German's Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel did not compete together in Santander 2014 due to a last minute injury to Thomas, but have come through so far at this years qualifier. They won the first race of the day by a wide margin and followed through with two solid races to move up into third. Poland sees both top crews in the gold fleet, with Lukas and Pawel (POL) comfortably in sixth while Thomas and Jake are back in 18th but still able to contribute to the nationality fight. The Japanese team of Makino and Takahashi were back in 27th with one race remaining of the series but pulled off a 3rd place to keep in contention for their 3rd straight Olympic appearance.
The two more surprising teams in the gold fleet still in the hunt for berths are Croatia and Belgium. The Croatians have been running a much lower key campaign than usual, both sailors being family men now. Their years of experience allow them to keep competing at a high level and they'll be looking for their third straight Olympic berths as well. The Belgians have been at the 49er game for years, and the pair of Lefebre and Paelsmaker only recently teamed up, and to good effect so far. They will certainly be under huge pressure in their first gold fleet as a duo to maintain their position.
Olympic Selection
In the fight for country selection, the Brazilian 49er berth has been locked up today by Marco Grael and Gabriel Borges. The duo had a comeback win over Dante Bianchi and Thomas Lowbeer last week at the South American's to score the first one on one point and sailed very well today with a 6, 4, 14 to slip easily into Gold Fleet in 14th. With their Brazilian rival missing the gold fleet by just a couple places, they have now secured 2 of 3 victories and so have been selected for the Brazilian berth at their home games. Marco is the son of Torben Grael, one of Brazil's most famous sailors, and was under huge pressure for the past two weeks. He'll join his sister Martine at their home Olympics. Great for sailing and the 49er Class as there will be huge interest by the Brazilian media during the Games.
The British trials have been thrown for a loop here, with only Fletcher and Sign making gold fleet. Peters and Sterritt seemed certainties for a few moments, but got bumped down to 26th when a scoring error to Phillips and Phillips was discovered. Further down was Pink/Bithell who got stuck on a start line collision for the first race today thankfully got redress and were then bumped into gold fleet overall. They've been front runners in the British system with their Silver in the Europeans in Porto. While the British keep their system secret it likely relies on scoring points at major events, with accelerating points allocation to medal performances. Fletcher and Sign will be working all they can to claw back into the race.
49erFX
Ida and Marie have got their "Burling" on as, so to speak, as the Danes dominate day 3 of the 49erFX World Championship.
Ida Nielsen and Marie Olsen have won six of the eight qualifying races they have raced so far, leaping out to the lead in this years worlds. They are on a mission to take the final step up the podium here; they lost out in the medal race in 2014 to Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze and settled for silver. The Danish duo were dominant all day today, winning all three races, won by a country mile, and pushing their overall lead to 11 points. They were beaten across the finish line in the final race by their team mates Jena Hansen and Katja Iversen, who had jumped the gun and were disqualified for being over early.
The Danes still hold 3 of the top 5 positions overall and are quick to credit their open team attitude where they share all knowledge and share a coach. They compete hard against one another, but remain great friends and teammates. It's a model many federations try to set up but few can achieve. This group in particular have had the same attitude taught to them since they were youth sailors, and it's paying off.
Nations Qualifying
Like in the 49er class, there are 7 nations vying for the three to five spots that will become available from the racing here. In contrast to the 49er, the nations vying for qualifying are not occupying the top spots, with previously qualified teams filling the top 10 positions. That means 7 of the back 14 spots are fighting directly with each other to qualify their nation. With three days of qualifying ahead, it's any lady's game.
The remaining teams chasing nation qualifying are:
- Norway
- United States
- Singapore
- Ireland
- Argentina
- Croatia
- Canada
For those keeping track of the long game in qualifying, that's two from North America, one from South America, one from Asia, and three from Europe. Nobody will give an inch in their quest for Rio.
The Day
The day started out boisterously, with 14 knots of wind and a reasonable chop as the system breeze had been flowing all night. As racing began, however, it dropped so the first race finished with only 8 knots of breeze and sailors working the waves hard downwind to surf whenever they could catch something. The wind continued to die with a 7 to 10 degree right shift through the first race, before picking up for the third and final race to about 7 knots and 'Good skiff racing conditions,' according to Will Phillips (AUS).
The 2015 49er & 49erFX World Championship is in Buenos Aires, Argentina from November 16-21, 2015. The event website including results is 49er.org/event/2015-world-championship and the event is sponsored by Seiko, SAP, and Magic Marine.
Update from Australian Sailing by Cora Zillich
All Australian Sailing crews have qualified for Gold fleet racing on the third regatta and last day of qualifying at the 2015 49er/FX World Championships in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, 18 November local time.
It was the first day with a rather consistent breeze and far as results were concerned, it was a day of recovery for most of Australia's sailors after a couple of challenging days in very light breeze, posting average results and dealing with illness.
Three races were completed in the 49er fleet with Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) moving up the results ladder from 18th into eleventh. An unfortunate crash caused by another boat in the first race of the day added a 27th to their scorecard but backing it up with two second places the pair had one of their best days thus far.
"It was nice to get two good races in today. It started off pretty breezy with 16knots and slowly died in the first race and the rest of the day we sailed in mostly five to eight," Nathan Outteridge said about the conditions of the day.
"In the first race, while we were ducking everyone, there was an Argentinian boat, which didn't give us room, which resulted in a big crash and a couple of boats were all stuck together for 30 seconds. By the time we got untangled we had a lot of catching up to do and finished 27th in that race. We didn't get any damage, so there wasn't any redress, but that's just how it is in sailing. So we had to suck that one up and get ready for the next race."
"In the following two races we managed to get two second places on a predominantly right-hand favoured track and we sailed quite well, which puts us into Gold fleet going forward."
Iain Jensen is still recovering from a gastro illness after many sailors across the international fleet have fallen ill with stomach and gastrointestinal issues and with the less clean than predicted water having been targeted as the reason.
"Gooby (Iain Jensen) is still not really well," Nathan Outteridge said. "He was taken straight home from the boat after the race again today and I sailed in by myself. During racing he's fine, but it's really difficult to maintain energy levels when you can't eat. He really hasn't eaten for two days now, so hopefully he can get some more rest and be ready for Gold Fleet next."
After three days and a total of eight races in the qualifying series all Australian crews have made the top-30 Gold fleet cut with Australian Sailing Squad's Will Phillips and brother Sam ranked 15th after a strong day three posting a twelfth, sixth and ninth place. Australian Sailing Team's David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) go into Gold fleet racing ranked 17th with Queenslanders Joel Turner and Lewis Brake following in 21st.
After a bad start to the regatta, Turner and Brake were excited to complete the Australian contingent in the top-30 Gold fleet. They were able to jump up from 57th into 23rd on the second day of the event and with a second, 23rd and twelfth on day three secured overall 21st to proceed to Gold Fleet.
"We were under fair bit of pressure today to make sure we had some half decent results. We didn't have to do anything spectacular but at the same time we had a couple of shocking results on the first day, which meant we had to perform well today to ensure we make it into Gold fleet," Joel Turner explained.
"We managed to get a couple of good results and after our bad day one we're stoked to be in the Gold Fleet. Gold fleet racing will be a good challenge and it will be pretty exciting to get out racing against the top half of the fleet. There's plenty of breeze forecast so it could be very interesting and exciting over the next three days."
In the 49erFX Australian Sailing Squad's Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) also have recovered from gastro issues and had a strong day three, posting two second places and a ninth place, which moved them from 21st into eleventh place overall and into the top-22 Gold fleet.
"It was our last day of qualification and it was great to get two really good results. We needed a consistent day to move us up on the leader board," Tess Lloyd said.
"It was a lot more consistent breeze today than some of the other days. And after all the rain, which made the water quite dirty and both Caitlin and I getting sick, we seem to have recovered from that and have been getting back into the racing quite nicely.
"It was really good to today to get some good results under our belt. We just have to keep having some consistent days and hopefully we can make it into the top ten to get into the Medal Race, which is what we are aiming for."
Update from Yachting New Zealand by Jodie Bakewell-White
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have taken the overall lead as the 2015 49er and 49erFX World Championships hits the half way mark and fleets are split into gold and silver for finals racing.
The men raced first today and Burling and Tuke took two race wins and an 8th to step into the overall lead with a 17 point margin in the battle to defend their 49er world crown.
"It was another solid day for us," says Blair Tuke.
"Our first goal at these events, with qualifying, is to make it through to gold fleet in a position to be able to push for the lead in the second half of the week when the racing steps up. So to have a little lead at this stage of the week is good."
Conditions in Argentina were again on the light and tricky side, requiring tenacious decision making and persistence.
"The wind was looking really nice on the sail out and for the first beat of the first race. We had around 12 knots," says Tuke. "From there it got really tricky. Quite big wind shifts and it dropped to around 6 knots. We raced the last two races in about 7-9 knots."
Talking about defending their world title this week, Burling said, "For us the end goal is pretty clear. We started this campaign a while back and it was to go and try and get gold in Rio."
"We're not really too worried about all this stuff that's going on in the interim, we're just trying to keep that in mind and there are times where you're concentrating on things that try and improve the end performance."
"Blair and myself really enjoy that pressure and that challenge of having to perform under it."
Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech continue to ascend the 49erFX leader board leaping another five places on day three and breaking into the top ten as the regatta shifts up a gear and into finals racing.
Despite the tough conditions the kiwi women managed a 3rd, an 11th and a 4th on the water today to lie 10th overall at the end of day three.
Three other kiwi crews competing in the men's division will race the remainder of the regatta in silver fleet after finishing outside the top half of the 61 strong fleet in Argentina.