2021 470 European Championships at Vilamoura, Portugal - Day 5
by Int 470 Class/Sail-World.com/nz 6 May 2021 22:39 BST
2-7 May 2021
France - Day 5 - Open Mens European 470 championship - Vilamoura, Portugal - May 2021 © Joao Costa Ferreira
The top of the leaderboard remained unchanged after Day 5 of the 470 European Championship in Vilamoura, Portugal, with the top teams scoring countable races to consolidate their position ahead of the Medal Races on Day 6.
Racing got under way on time at 1pm in a 12kt breeze, similar to yesterday, with kinetic propulsion again permitted.
The French teams, Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz in the women's fleet and Kevin Peponnet and Jeremie Mion in the men's, didn't blot their copybooks, and both crews remained the leaders in their fleets respectively and are prime candidates for the Open and European titles.
In the Men's Open, the New Zealand Olympic representatives, Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox, kept their second overall position while the Spanish crew Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez moved up to the third position overall. They are second in the European title 15 points behind the French. Sweden's Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom are on equal points to the Spanish, and their 21pt differential with the next European entry assures both crews of a medal in the European championship.
In the Open Men's title both the Spanish and Swedish crews were beneficiaries of the crack Australian crew of Matt Belcher and Will Ryan being called out as premature starters, while the "U" flag was flying. Their starting error dropped them from third to fifth places in the Open Mens championship - but still capable gaining a podium place in tomorrow's Medal race.
In the Women's fleet the World Champions Silvia Mas Depares and Patricia Cantero (ESP) are in second place 10 points behind the leaders Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz (FRA) with the Swiss combination of Linda Fahrni and Maja Siegenthaler are going into the Medal race in third overall just a single point ahead of the 2019 world champions, British crew Hannah Mills and Eilidh Mcintyre. Like the Mens fleet the Open and European medals winners will come from this group of four boats. Mathematically all crews have a chance of taking the two titles on offer in Vilamoura.
Israel's Nitai Hasson and Saar Tamir, who have led the scoreboard in the Mixed fleet, since Day 1, again delivered a great performance with back to back wins and are assured of either the Gold or Silver medal. Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra from Germany scored a 4th and a 5th place and hold second overall, securing at least the silver medal. Vita Heathcote and Ryan Orr (GBR) had a difficult day scoring a 10th and a 4th, keeping their place in the top three and with a 13pt buffer to protect their bronze medal chances.
Fleet racing came today to its end in the 470 European Championship, with all 11 scheduled races sailed in five days.
Tomorrow, only the top 10 sailors of each fleet will sail the Medal Race. Points count double, however it would take some major upsets to see a change in first and second placing on the three leaderboards. The battle for Bronze is expected to provide most of the Medal racing action.
The 470 European Championship is being Live Streamed. Follow the action on the water via Vilamoura Sailing / You Tube channel.
Follow the championship at 2021europeans.470.org