Thursday April 25th, 2012 - Different skills were tested today with light and shifty winds on the race course. Few
leaders could maintain their position while others collected high points. Piotr
Myszka (POL) is keeping his first position in the RS:X men with top five
results,
but the day's conditions suited better his team mate Lukaz Grodzicki
(POL) who claims both races. Shahar Zubari (ISR) climbs to second with
Toni
Wilhem (GER) in third on equal points with Przemek Miarczynski (POL). Tom
Slingsby (AUS) proved once again he truly deserves his World #1 status.
The
Australian placed twice second in the light air, after top three scores
in the breeze. He leads from German Philipp Buhl who scored mixed
results with
a 15th and a first. Andy Maloney (NZL) hangs on to third.
Lisa
Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) are in top form after dominating the
fleet in
the breeze, they were able to pull out a good race to increase their
lead while their direct opponent scored high points. “The level in this
event is high and we knew that today would see some changes with the
light wind. Despite a 15th in the first race we managed a
good result
in the second and keep our lead.” The Dutch are enjoying a solid lead
over last year winners Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP) in second.
French Camille Lecointre et Mathilde Géron climbed to third after a
fourth and a first.
Despite
mixed results scored by top ranked sailors, Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page
(AUS)
are conserving the lead in the 470 over the Coster brothers and
Mantis/Kagialis. With two second places, Portuguese Marinho Alvaro and
Miguel Nunes
(POR) climbed to fifth. Regatta victories were taken by the Japanese duo
Harada/Yoshida and Swedish Joonas and Niklas Lindgren.
In the 2.4, Damien Seguin (FRA) scored two victories to increase his lead to11 points
over Helena Lucas (GBR) and Thierry Schmitter (NED) on equal points.
For others, the day didn't prove easy and the lighter conditions penalised the early
leaders.
For Maja Dziarnwska (POL) the day was not ideal, the young Pole suffered from the tricky
conditions placing 15th and 20th in the RS:X women. She loses the lead to French Charline Picon (FRA) who raced to perfection
with two victories. “It has been a while since I sailed in these pumping conditions. It was very physical.” explained Picon. “We
expect waves and breeze tomorrow, it will be technical but it can suit me!”
After
three races in the Star and two won by Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson
(GBR), the
British take the first position from Canadians Richard Clarke and Tyler
Bjorn. The Swedish team of Loof/Salminen win the last race to place
third
overall.
“We had a
mixed bag- I guess overall it was a good day.” explains Percy.
“We won two races but we should have won three – we certainly had the
speed to but it got very patchy and light in the last race and we
just got a bit unlucky on the last run and a group of three boats got
past us which made it a little but frustrating to end like that.
Overall, the
good news is we’re really fast upwind – we’re struggling a little
downwind which is unusual for us but we’re really fast
upwind and that's a nice place to be after a couple of years of not
having that.”
Athens
Silver medallist Rafa Trujillo (ESP) takes the lead in the Finn class
with a
first and a second place. Deniss Karpak (EST) suffered from the tricky
conditions and drops to second overall in front of Vasilyi Zbogar (SLO)
who
wins the last race.
It is
tight at the top of the 49ers. After a long day and four races sailed in
the Gold
group, World champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) are in
first place with two races win. They are on equal points with French
Manu Dyen
and Stéphane Christidis while Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes (GBR) lose
two places to third. It is the first time in Hyères as a team
for the Australians who are back into the competition after winning the
ISAF Worlds in Perth.
The day
delivered mixed results for the top girls in the Laser radial. ISAF
World
champion, Marit Bouwmeester (NED) gets to first place with Lijia Xu
(CHN) in second. Earlier leader Alison Young (GBR) has found it tough
today and
scores high points to place third overall. The bullets go to World # 1
Evi van Acker (BEL) placed 5th and Tina Mihelic (CRO)
11th.
The
results are getting close between the top three in the Sonar. The
British John
Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are taking the lead.
Aleksander Wang Hansen, Per Eugen Kristiansen and Marie Solberg (NOR)
win two races to
place second. Bruno Jourdren, Nicolas Vimont-Vicary et Eric Flageul
(FRA) are in third at only four points from the leaders.
It is a
dual for the title in the Skud. Miami OCR winners Daniel Fitzgibbon and
Liesl
Tesch (AUS) are two points ahead Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell
(GBR). They held a good lead over Americans Jennifer French and
Jean-Paul
Creignou.
The Women Match Racers had a long day trying to finish the round robins. At the end of
the day and with some flights still to race, Anna Tunnicliffe and her team remain undefeated.
The Women Match Racers will be the first out to race at 8.30 am with the fleets starting
earlier than scheduled at 10am.
The forecast is once again quite extreme for the fifth day of racing in Hyères
with the Easterly bringing in big waves and strong winds.
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