ISAF World Sailing Games at Lake Neusiedl, Austria - Day 10

Onto the medal races

The Medal Races await at the ISAF World Sailing Games, after another excellent day of sailing on Lake Neusiedl. Australia and France were again to the fore, whilst some of the big names fell by the wayside in the fight for a place in tomorrow’s decisive races.

It was a day of pressure on Lake Neusiedl, with the competitors fighting for places and positions in tomorrow’s Medal Races. Across the fleets it was again the Australian and French sailors who were grabbing the majority of the limelight, with the two nations’ battle for the King’s Trophy repeated in minutiae across several of the fleets.

Again today it was the Aussies who shaded it, and tomorrow they have to chance to put a cap on a fantastic ten day long performance in Austria, holding pole position going into the Medal Races. Meanwhile the pressure seemed too much for the home Austrian sailors, with their big stars failing to deliver the goods when it came to the crunch.

Nowhere were the trends of the day better illustrated than in the Laser, which saw incident aplenty in today's three races.

Laser - Game over for GERITZER, SLINGSBY assured of Gold or Silver

Disappointment for the home crowd as Andreas GERITZER (AUT) received his second yellow flag of the series, and had to leave the race course in today’s race six. A tall order by anyone’s standards, GERITZER had to achieve two top two finishes to salvage any chance of carrying his nation’s hopes through to the Medal Race Final. Despite demonstrating his ability to fight back with a stunning performance in the final two races, a third in race seven and victory in race eight, he was still one point short of tenth place.

As it was Felix PRUVOT (FRA) only just claimed the final slot in the Medal Race, finishing on equal points with Milan VUJASINOVIC (CRO) gaining his qualification on countback.

Jean Baptiste BERNAZ (FRA) was the star turn in today’s opening race six claiming the bullet, but perhaps a chance performance as he returned to double figure results in races seven and eight, to finish the series in 29 overall.

Race six was a fairly straightforward affair, starting as it finished, except for Tom SLINGSBY (AUS). Up to the first mark, SLINGSBY was in fourth, and went into a straightforward roll tack around the mark, except he kept on rolling through to a capsize. On recovering he was just above mid-fleet, and put in some inspirational sailing to finish the race back where he started in fourth.

Race seven was again hit with gusty and shifty conditions. Heading down to the leeward mark, Diego ROMERO (ARG) received a Rule 42 penalty, and going into his turns a gust hit and capsized onto Evangelos CHEIMONAS (GRE). ROMERO struggled to recover and didn’t finish the race. As the rest of the fleet then bunched together around the mark a gust swept through sending another six boats over.

The three leading boats off the start line in race eight headed to the left of the course, and only two, Andreas GERITZER (AUT) and Andrew MURDOCH (NZL), seized the opportunity headed right which proved to their advantage as they led the fleet to the windward mark and held their positions through to the finish. In a position to challenge for second place, a lack of concentration from SLINGSBY saw him heading for the wrong mark after a change of course was indicated by the Race Committee, and dropping to seventh overall, but this result has done little to dent his stronghold at the head of the fleet, where he is guaranteed of a gold or silver medal tomorrow.

The sailor who stunned the fleet today, to rise from a seemingly impossible position of 26 overall to find himself in tomorrow’s Medal Race Final is Andrew MURDOCH (NZL). 32 points behind tenth place before racing began this morning, MURDOCH who is seventh in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, managed to pull together an amazing 5,1,2 scoreline to lift himself up to ninth overall. Disappointment for Croatia’s Milan VUJASINOVIC who opened the gold fleet final series safely in the top ten, and at one point top five, as he dropped off the top ten scoreboard today with a 27,9,19 posting.

Looking at the possibilities for tomorrow, aside from SLINGSBY, only Thomas LE BRETON (FRA) has a chance at the gold medal. The silver and bronze medals could be claimed by either LE BRETON or ROMERO, whilst Paul GOODISON (GBR) can only hope for the bronze medal.

Laser Radial - All to play for in medal race final

World ranked number one, Paige RAILEY (USA) continued to nudge ahead today and secured herself either the gold or silver medal. Behind her the battle gets exciting, as any of the top nine sailors could find themselves on the podium come tomorrow night.

Sophie DE TURCKHEIM (FRA) continued her blistering pace today, posting a 2, 6 and 7, to conclude the gold fleet series in second overall and assure herself a medal, hopefully for her the gold or silver . Only Sarah BLANCK (AUS), who sits in third overall, can capture the silver medal from DE TURCKHEIM and it would take some doing. If lady luck is on her side and BLANCK can take the gun, with DE TURCKHEIM finishing in 9 or 10, BLANCK will have the silver medal around her neck.

However, the likelihood is that BLANCK will find herself being challenged for the bronze medal by the sailors beneath her, with any of those placed 4 through to 9 having the medal within their reach. So DE TURCKHEIM can most probably sleep easy tonight.

For RAILEY winning here will be a doubly sweet, as in 2002 she won the US qualification event to represent her nation at the 2002 ISAF World Sailing Games, but was not allowed to compete as she was too young. RAILEY’s assault on the Laser Radial has been swift and convincing and she has dominated the World Rankings, virtually unchallenged, since August 2005.

DE TURCKHEIM however has another reason for wanting the gold, as she is the defending Champion from 2002, where she won the Games without needing to sail the last two races so superior was her game. DE TURCKHEIM will have more of a contest on her hands tomorrow!

Today’s racing was held in shifty winds, between 15-25 knots, with consistency rewarding this high points fleet. The same top ten sailors who started this morning’s racing have held fast and will face each other in the ten boat Medal Race Final. Only Croatia’s Mateja PETRONIJEVIC, who is in tenth overall, will not be dreaming of a podium place tomorrow as she is just too many points adrift, but regardless her result here in Austria will mark a career highlight. A taster of what may be in store tomorrow, the sharpest sailing came in race 6 today, with RAILEY and Sari MULTALA (FIN) in their own personal match race for first and second, a battle which MULTALA claimed. This result helped her to climb from ninth overall yesterday, to sit in fifth today, and put the bronze medal within grasp.

49er - Spanish secure podium place

Comfortably in the safety zone and with a medal determined, the Olympic Gold medallists Iker MARTINEZ and Xabier FERNANDEZ (ESP) will be cautiously celebrating tonight. Entering the gold fleet as pre-qualified sailors, and without the advantage of knowledge of the lake conditions, MARTINEZ and FERNANDEZ have outsailed the fleet and remain at the top of their game despite several months away from 49er sailing. The pair have recently been competing in the Volvo Ocean Race on the Spanish entry Movistar.

Only disaster and a letter score result in tomorrow’s Medal Race Final will take a podium place away from the second and third teams overall, Rodion LUKA and Georgiy LEONCHUK (UKR) and Pietro SIBELLO and Gianfranco SIBELLO (ITA). They sit on 35 points apiece, with the fourth and fifth placed crews twenty points behind with 55 points each.

The Medal Race Final uses a double points score based on the ten boats in the final. So if for example a team posted a letter score, such as OCS (on course side) or DNF (did not finish) they would score 22 points, and it would need either of the fourth and fifth place crews, Jonas WARRER and Martin KIRKETERP (DEN), and Nathan OUTTERIDGE and Ben AUSTIN (AUS) to be first across the line to place earn two points and move up into a podium place.

Today’s three races only saw one position change in the top ten boats, as Tom LONNQVIST and Jacob GRANQVIST (FIN) moved from tenth overall this morning, do drop out of the Medal Race cut into eleventh, having scored 9,14,11. The final boat making the top ten cut are Alaxandre MONTEAU and Damien GUILLOU (FRA), ranked 16 in the world, who posted their most consistent string of results of the series - 7,3,9 - to secure France's second team going through to the Medal Race tomorrow.

Men's 470 - Consistency key for Aussie world champs

The 470s got their day underway in ideal conditions with a westerly breeze of 15-20 knots. With the strong breeze dropping off later in the afternoon it was another high scoring day, with all three bullets going to crews way down the overall standings as consistency again proved key.

In the breezy conditions at the start of racing the French duo of Benjamin BONNAUD and Romain BONNAUD (FRA) come to the fore, with the pair sticking to safe lines and reliably staying amongst the leaders. Meanwhile yesterday’s second place team Sven COSTER and Kalle COSTER (NED) seemed intent on a more ambitious strategy, choosing different lines to the rest of the fleet as they sought to put overall leaders Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE (AUS) under pressure.

Initially the Dutch ploy seemed to be working, with the COSTER brothers sixth through the fourth mark of the opening race, just ahead of the French team. However the BONNAUD brothers fought back strongly on the second downwind, and then the risky Dutch strategy faltered, with the pair losing big on the upwind to watch WILMOT and PAGE sail by.

At the front a battle between Dmitry BEREZKIN and Alexander ZYBIN (RUS) and Luke PATIENCE and Chris GRUBE (GBR) went the way of the Brits, whilst the BONNAUD brothers took third with WILMOT and PAGE crossing in tenth.

The second race saw a much tighter battle between WILMOT and PAGE and the BONNAUD brothers. Sergei DESUKEVICH and Pavel LOGUNOV (BLR) took the bullet with the French second and the Aussies third.

At this stage the BONNAUD brother looked set to be the stars of the day. However, not for nothing have WILMOT and PAGE won the last two 470 World Championships, and the Aussies proved their mettle in the day’s third race, when the 20 knot breeze gradually descended to around ten for the finish. Knowing the silver medal was safe and they had a better discard, they kept close to their rivals at the start, with WILMOT later revealing, 'In the last race we just wanted to beat the French... we wanted to make up some points because they are second, and the only ones who can beat us tomorrow.'

With the leaders battling in the middle of the fleet a bold move right on the second upwind saw the bullet go to Stuart MCNAY and Graham BIEHL (USA) by a country mile. But the real battle was mid fleet with WILMOT and PAGE managing to maintain a steady advantage on the French throughout the race and eventually crossing in twelfth, seven places ahead of the BONNAUD brothers.

This leaves the Aussies five points ahead, meaning they have to finish within two places of the BONNAUD brothers in tomorrow’s Medal Races to secure gold. Meanwhile the battle for the bronze is set to be tight, with four crews within two points of one another, meaning whoever finishes best out of these will be guaranteed the final spot on the podium.

Women's 470 - French class tells

In the women’s racing World number one crew Ingrid PETITJEAN and Nadege DOUROUX (FRA) showed their class today to establish a solid lead going into tomorrow’s Medal Race. The right side of the course seemed favoured in the breezy conditions, and the French pair wasted no time in taking advantage. With the pin end favoured by the other leaders, PETITJEAN and DOUROUX started by the Committee boat and headed way out right in a race winning move. With the bullet affectively decided at the first mark, Lenka SMIDOVA and Elisabeth KRATZIG (CZE) won the battle for second, with second place overall Elise RECHICHI and Tessa PARKINSON (AUS) keeping the pressure on the leaders with fourth. This set up the race of the day on the 470 course.

This time the French were not the only team to go right, and after a good start SMIDOVA and KRATZIG led round the first mark, with RECHICHI and PARKINSON second, the Italian team of Giulia CONTI and Giovanna MICOL third and then a 20 second gap to PETITJEAN and DOUROUX. From then on these four battled at the front, with the Czech team consistently holding the top spot and PETITJEAN and DOUROUX gradually reeling them in at every mark. They were the fastest team downwind all day long and by the gate had closed right in on RECHICHI and PARKINSON, whilst the Italians had slipped into second. By the fourth mark the Aussies trailed the French pair, and then by the fifth both had swept passed the Italians. By the reach SMIDOVA and KRATZIG’s lead was no under threat from PETITJEAN and DOUROUX, whilst RECHICHI and PARKINSON looked too far back to challenge. PETITJEAN and DOUROUX again showed their class downwind, tracking down the leaders and sailing past them by the final mark.

However the Aussies had gone out to the left of the course and caught a great shift to sail right past the pair of them. Victory looked certain, before their spinnaker got tangled up and they were left at a standstill with the French and Czech teams fast closing in. Unperturbed, PARKINSON freed the spinnaker, the Aussies accelerated and took the bullet with PETITJEAN and DOUROUX securing second.

The celebrations for the Australians were cut short by the end of race three however. During the race the wind dropped and PETITJEAN and DOUROUX sailed away to another emphatic bullet, with their win assured at the third upwind mark, when the battle for second saw Wakako TABATA and Naomi KURITA (JPN) try to cut in front of Sylvia VOGL and Carolina FLATSCHER resulting in contact, penalty turns for the Japanese and a loss of momentum for the Austrians. Behind them RECHICHI and PARKINSON struggled throughout the race, eventually crossing eleventh, a result they immediately discard, but one which leaves them ten points behind the French pair going into tomorrow’s Medal Race. Meanwhile second in the last race puts VOGL and FLATSCHER in third and makes them one of the few Austrian crew in with a chance of a medal tomorrow.

Men’s RS:X – BONTEMPS turns the screw

The weather reports summed up the final day of racing for entire RS:X fleet, one forecast predicted 28 knots, another 15 knots while the final forecast predicated one to two knots – and they were all correct!

The men’s and women’s gold fleet left the beach in promising conditions, planing to the start boat. The first men’s race started in an average breeze of 12 to 15 knots with the majority of competitors starting on starboard tack. Both Richard STAUFFACHER (SUI) and Riccardo BELLI DELLISCA (ITA) were scored OCS before French sailor Julien BONTEMPS again showed the rest of the fleet that he is in a class of his own to take the first race with a large lead. Brazilian sailor Ricardo SANTOS took second place followed by Nimrod MASHIAH (ISR), with Maksym OBEREMKO (UKR) keeping his gold medal hopes alive in fourth.

The second start for the men was clean in 15 knots dropping off to ten knots halfway through the race. BONTEMPS again dominated the race to lead from start to finish. New Zealander Tom ASHLEY took second, MASHIAH his second third place finish of the day,, with SANTOS fourth and OBEREMKO fifth.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, BONTEMPS has a solid lead, with OBEREMKO and ASHLEY tied for second place behind him. Back in fourth SANTOS will have to hope one of the leaders have a major slip up if he is to reach the podium, whilst fifth place Nicolas HUGUET (FRA) also is still not out of the running.

Women’s RS:X - China still on top

During the start sequence for the women’s fleet opening race a gust of over 20 knots hit the fleet forcing the young Polish sailor Iga PERYNA to drop her sail, turning into a domino effect with six others dropping their sails within one minute of the start. Israeli sailor Lee KORZITS (ISR) had a large lead on the fleet at the bottom mark but was unable to maintain this and finished in third place. Ukraine sailor Olga MASLIVETS took first place to makes amends for an OCS in yesterday’s opening race, followed by Chinese sailor and overall leader Qiubin CHEN (CHN).

In the women’s second race the breeze built to 28 knots during a rain squall and Israeli sailor KORZITS, a true heavy wind sailor, had a lead of over one minute on second place MASLIVETS. The bullets ensures KORZITS a place in the Medal Race after not being able to compete in two races due to equipment problems. Italian favourite Flavia TARTAGLINI took third place followed by Greek sailor Antonia FREY. A 1,2 day from MASLIVETS put the pressure on CHEN, but she responded with sixth, to take an eleven point lead into tomorrow decisive Medal Race.

After two fifths today, third place overall 2005 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Champion Blanca MANCHON (ESP) will be hoping CHEN and MASLIVETS get involved in a Medal Race dual that drags them down the fleet and could see the Spaniard take third, although she herself is only six points ahead of TARTAGLINI, Charline PICON (FRA) and FREY.

Hobie Tiger - BUNDOCK and ASHBY the team to beat nothing's guaranteed

Two races were sailed today by the Hobie Tiger gold fleet which left the beach in 15-18 knots of breeze. Series leader Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS) had a good start but on the first leg ASHBY disconnected from the trapeze and fell in the water. BUNDOCK had to return to collect his crew. BUNDOCK was heard to say: 'I would have carried on but I didn't fancy hoisting the kite by myself so I waited for him to get back on board!'.

Andrey KIRILYUK and Valery USHKOV (RUS) took the opportunity to take the lead, followed by current Hobie Tiger World Champion Enrique FIGUEROA and Jorge HERNANDEZ (PUR) who capsized later and finished 15. This combined with a ninth in race eight scuppered their chances of qualifying for the medal race as they end up in 14 overall. KIRILYUK and USHKOV however had the day they needed to get into the medal race. Starting the day thirteenth overall, their third in race seven combined with a seventh in race eight was enough to bring them up to tenth overall and scrape into the action on final day.

Dual Olympic Gold medallist Roman HAGARA and Hans Peter STEINACHER (AUS) while in fourth spot capsized 300 metres from the finish line and ended up 16. BUNDOCK and ASHBY recovered to continue their winning form winning their fourth race and have a comfortable lead.

Scoring their best result of their gold fleet challenge were Yann GUICHARD and Laurent GUILLEMETTE (FRA) who came in second behind BUNDOCK and ASHBY. Starting the day in ninth after an two upper teen finishes yesterday and in danger of losing their place in the medal race GUICHARD and GUILLEMETTE needed a good day. A second in race seven and fourth in race eight brought them up to sixth and still gives them a shot at the medals.

After a short delay waiting for an approaching storm the Hobie Tiger Gold fleet headed out again. With a dying breeze the Race Officer abandoned the race and reset it for the new breeze. Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS) rounded the first mark in sixth place and by the bottom mark they had worked the shifts to round the mark second. They had climbed to first by the next mark and never looked back for another comfortable win to bring their tally of bullets up to five.

Mitch BOOTH and Herbert DERCKSEN (NED) with smart sailing finished second to consolidate second position overall and increase their chances of taking home a medal.

Tomorrow’s medal race should be an exciting race as while the team of Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS) have shown they are the ones to beat anything can still happen and there are plenty of teams still with a chance of a medal.

Hobie 16 – France on top

Marie DUVIGNAC and Pauline THEVENOT (FRA) sailed a perfect two races today by winning both races and bringing their tally of first place finishes up to five. While Annie NELSON and Susan KORZENIEWSKI (USA) consolidated second place with a two - three scorecard today, overnight leaders Belinda HAYWARD and Kim WILKINSON-DAVIES (RSA) had the lead in both races but could not keep the Marie DUVIGNAC and Pauline THEVENOT (FRA) behind them and finished third and fourth.

The women's Hobie 16 fleet have completed 13 races and the top ten will now progress to the medal race. Whilst positions within the top ten changed after today's racing, the teams who will progress remains the same and there are still nine teams in with a chance of getting a medal.

For the home fans, the Hobie 16 fleet medal race is the best represented as two Austrian teams have made it through to the medal race. Sonja ZELINKA and Christine MOSER go through in eighth place despite sailing their worst race of the championship today, posting two fifteenth places. They went into the day in fifth place overall which would have given them a great shot at a medal, and discard both of their results from today. Margit PRETTENHOFER and Claudia MANDL come in just behind them in ninth overall.

More Information:

• ISAF World Sailing Games website