Olympic Diary: July 30 - Some big turnarounds as breeze freshens
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 30 Jul 18:06 BST
30 July 2024
Tamara Echegoyen/Paula Barcelo (ESP) - 49erFX - Marseille - Paris2024 Olympic Regatta - July 30, 2024 © World Sailing / Sander van der Borch
There was some surprising movement on the overall leaderboards after the long-awaited fresh breeze arrived to give sailors in the Windsurfer and Skiff events some relief from the marginal sailing conditions of the first two days of the 2024 Olympic Regatta.
Perhaps the biggest change in performance and results came from the New Zealand women's skiff crew of Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, who returned a performance more worthy of Olympic Gold and Silver medalists.
After languishing at the bottom of the points table for the first two days of the regatta, the Kiwis returned a 3, 2, 1 scorecard for the day to rocket up the points table from 20th at the start of the day to be 7th overall at the end.
Aleh is no stranger to big comebacks. After a dreadful start to the regatta in the Rio 2016 Olympics, she pulled a similar feat. But with a very gritty but focused approach, she took it one race at a time in the final two days of the regatta and exited her final year in the 470 class as a proud winner of the Silver medal.
Brazilians Martine Grael and Kahena Kunz, the current Olympic champions in the 49er FX skiff and winners of the last two Olympic Regattas, were surprisingly not able to match Aleh and Meech in the fresh breeze of around 14-17kts. They languish in an unfamiliar 15th overall and must have a big final day on Wednesday if they are to make the top ten cut for the Medal Race in the 49er FX.
Another crew to make a big move in the 49erFX was the Swedish combination Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler, who placed 2,1 and 5 to move into third place overall with a reasonable chance of winning the Bronze medal on Thursday. It is hard to see the Dutch crew and current World Champions Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz letting the Gold medal slip from their grasp. But they had a good shot at it in the opening race, finishing second to last (19th), before recovering to finish third and second in the other two races.
Likewise for the French crew of Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon, who didn't dominate today. In the light winds of the first six races, they scored five-second places. Today, they were consistent again—but mid-fleet—with 10, 11, and 12th places.
There was a significant change in the Mens Skiff, with the young New Zealand crew who had dominated the 20-boat fleet, scoring three wins from six races, and looked to be on track for big things. But they, like the French womens crew, were back in mid-fleet and lost their overall lead to the favourites to win the Gold Medal, Spain's Diego Botin and Paul Trittel. Three places in the top three were enough to lift the Spanish up from third overall at the start of the day to enjoy a ten-point margin over Ireland's Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, who will be the toast of Irish sailing if they can win the Silver medal on Thursday. It will be challenging. They have a DSQ in their point score and scored a 4th, 13th and 9th today.
With more of the same or a little less wind forecast for the final day of fleet racing, the Irish crew will still have to dig deep. However, three years ago, when they missed making the cut for the Medal race in Tokyo2020.
They would have needed more than a drop or two of Ireland's finest to believe that three years on and three-quarters of the way through the same event, they could be in clear contention for the Silver medal in Marseille.
The Men's and Women's Windsurfers effectively started their regatta today, with some intense racing around a variety of courses, hitting over 20kts in the fresh breezes, and with the fleet handling the sea-state remarkably well.
The new Olympic foiler is a big step ahead of the former "equipment," the RS:X. While the competitors had a good day, the women have only completed seven of the projected 17 races. Three races have already been cut from the original 20-race regatta, which must be completed by Thursday. Then, there will be a series of Final series racing on Friday.
The 60-minute marathon around the Bay of Marseille is also yet to come. It is confirmed to be staged on Wednesday.
It sounded awfully ambitious around the Committee table, and promises were made that the bodies would struggle to keep over the next two days unless the decision is taken to extend into the re-sail days that are pencilled in after Friday.
However, from what we saw on Tuesday, Britain's Emma Wilson will be tough to beat, finishing out of the top two in only one of the seven races sailed. The Mens Windsurfer looks more open, with just six of 16 scheduled races being sailed over the last three days. Dutch sailor Luc van Opzeeland leads by just 3 points, with the second and third overall very close. Van Opzeeland started the regatta with a Black Flag, starting disqualification, and can't afford a repeat or a lapse in form or fortune over the rest of the Olympic regatta.
Racing continues in the Skiffs and Boards on Wednesday, with Medal Racing in the Skiffs on Thursday.
Full results click here
Tuesday's schedule :
- Womens Skiff: Races 7 - 9 sailing on the Frioul Course starting at 1205hrs local time (on the original schedule)
- Mens Windsurfer: Races 2 - 6 sailing on the Marseille Course starting at 1213hrs local time (on the original schedule)
- Womens Windsurfer: Races 3 - 7 sailing on the Marseille Course starting at 1233hrs local time (on the original schedule)
- Mens Skiff: Races 7 - 9 sailing on the Corniche Course starting at 1233hrs local time (on the original schedule)
How Tuesday's racing unfolded
1530hrs UTC Mens Skiff Race 9: 1. GBR; 2. ESP; 3. USA. O'all: 1. ESP [35pts]; 2: IRL [46pts]; 3. NZL [49pts] Three races left to sail and Medal race. Wind 14.5kts dropping to 9kts as race progressed. Wind from 160° with very lumpy wind chop.
1500hrs UTC Womens Windsurf Race 7: 1. GBR; 2. GER; 3. ITA; O'all: 1. GBR [8pts] 2. ISR [25pts]; 3. ITA [30pts]. [GBR Discard 17th in R5.]
1445hrs UTC Womens Windsurf Race 6: 1. GBR; 2. CHN; 3. ISR; Wind 12kts - 14kts from 139° - 153°
1430hrs UTC Womens Windsurf Race 5: 1. ISR; 2. NOR; 3; CHN. Wind 14-16kts from 133° -147°
1430hrs UTC:Mens Skiff - Race 8: 1. POL; 2. EDP; 3. AUS; O'all: 1. NZL [33pts]; 2. ESP [ 33pts]; 3. IRL37pts] Wind 11-14kts eased from 146° - 176°
1345hrs UTC: Mens Skiff - Race 7: 1. SUI; 2. CRO; 3. ESP; Wind 10kts - 14kts; 143° - 150°
1330hrs UTC: Mens Windsurfer - Race 6: 1. NED; 2. POL; 3. USA O'all: 1. NED; 2. POL; 3. ISR. Wind: 15kts - 18kts 131° - 149° NZL Black flagged.
1300hrs UTC: Mens Windsurfer - Race 5: Course race: 1. AUS; 2. ITA; 3. ISR; O'all: 1. NED; 2. ISR; POL. Wind: 14kts - 18kts from 135° - 140°
1218hrs UTC: Womens Skiff - Race 9: 1. NZL; 2. NED; 3. GBR. Wind: 12-14kts from 148° - 162°. O'all after 9 races and 1 discard: 1. NED 35pts; 2. FRA 40pts; 3. SWE 58pts. There are three more races left in the series before top 10 are cut to contest the Medal Race.
1205hrs UTC: Mens Windsurf Race 4: Slalom: 1. NED; 2. POL; 3. ISR; O'all 1. POL; 2. NED; 3. USA (NZL 6). Wind 15kts - 17kts 131° - 147°
1137hrs UTC: Womens Windsurf Race 4 Slalom: 1. MEX; 2. ISR; 3. GBR. O'all: 1. GBR; 2. ITA; 3. PER; Wind 14-17kts; 143° - 157°
1123hrs UTC: Womens Skiff Race 8: 1. SWE; 2. NZL; 3. NED; O'all: 1. FRA; 2. NED; 3; Wind 15-16kts from 159° - 165°.
1119hrs UTC: Womens Skiff Race 7: 1. DEN; 2. SWE; 3. NZL; Wind 11-12kts 135° at start to 157° at finish.
1100hrs UTC: Womens Windsurfer Race 3 Slalom Course. 1. GBR; 2. FRA; 3. CRO. Overall: 1. GBR; 2. ITA; 3. PER. Wind 150° - 156°. 12-14kts. NZL led at first two marks, but came off the foil, as did several others during the race.
1049hrs UTC: Womens Skiff Race 7 Finish: 1. DEN; 2. SWE;3. NZL Overall: 1. FRA; 2. NED; 3. ITA; The top three boats overall all had their worst race in Race 7 and have discarded it from their overall score to maintain their overnight position. Finishing positions of key competitors: 10. BRA; 19; NED; 20. AUS. Other key competitors overall: 14: DEN; 15 BRA; 16. NZL
1048hrs UTC: Mens windsurfer Race 2: 1. USA; 2. BRA; 3. POL
1042hrs UTC: Womens skiff Leg 2: 1. DEN; 2. SWE; 3. NZL
1038hrsUTC: Still no start in Mens Windsurfer - course being moved closer to shore. 60secs to start.
1033hrs UTC: Womens skiff is underway. On Leg 2 with DEN leading followed NZL with SWE third.
1015hrs UTC Postponement signalled on the Mens Windsurfer, just before the start, ostensibly due to a windshift. The sailors are up and foiling waiting for the start.
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