The battle between leaders Botin with Trittel (ESP) and Lambriex with van de Werken (NED) is on! After twelve 49er races, the Spanish and Dutch protagonists find themselves just 0.2 points apart at the top of the standings. The teams are locked on the leaderboard and locked on the water too, finishing within two place in each of the three races today. The Dutch won two of the three times to whittle down the small lead to a minuscule one. For example, 30 seconds after the start of race three, both the Spanish and Dutch struggled to hold their lanes on starboard. The Dutch tacked to Port and ducked the Spanish, and then just a few moments later the Spanish tacked to follow and keep in lockstep. 30 minutes later the pair were still together, finishing 6th and 7th, respectively.
James Peters and Fynn Sterrit (GBR) had two wins today and a poor race to bring themselves into the mix after the first day of gold fleet racing. They also won their final qualifying race to be on three wins in a row, the third of which was very comfortable by the time they completed the second lap. The British pair are up into third overall, typically a finish that would secure themselves a place in Paris within the confidential British trial system.
In the race to qualify nation places for Paris 2024, ten different nations are represented in the top 10 overall and aim to get the ten Paris berths on offer this week.
Gold fleet racing continues tomorrow, with three more races scheduled. Then the top 10 will race the medal race for 49er and FX on the 18th of August. The medal races will be broadcasted live, starting with the Nacra 17 and 470 on the 17th of August. Go to 49er.org/subscribe to sign up for live alerts.
Smiling Swedes Sit Sweetly
Vilma Bobeck with Rebecca Netzler (SWE) have moved into a dominating lead after the first day of gold fleet racing in the 49erFX. They are now only counting firsts, seconds, and thirds out of 11 races, with their single drop race, a 19th, in their final race of the day. They have now built a 35 point lead and can begin to realistically team of securing the first-ever skiff World Championship for Sweden.
The pair were casual and relaxed as they headed out in the morning, and started well with a second in the first race of gold fleet and a third in the second.
Olivia Price with Evie Haseldine (AUS) kept up their consistent performances with two more good races and a drop. Their third and twelfth to start the day are great scores for this relatively new team. Like the Swedes, they also sailed their drop in the third race of the day.
Olivia Price & Evie Haseldine – Australian Sailing team: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv-DH_Sgp_L/?hl=en
Steph Roble and Maggie Shea (USA) won the final race of the day. The American pair had the best day overall in the fleet, with three top tens’s including the race win. The only other team to secure three top 10’s was Martine Grael with Kahena Kunze (BRA), who started in the 20’s overall and have moved up to 14th.
Like the 49er fleet, the top 10 of the FX fleet comprises ten nations, in line with the 10 Olympic berths available at the 2023 World Championship. There are also three different continents making up the podium right now. Both points illustrated how this relatively young class has been widely adopted globally in only ten years of existence.
Santi to Retire
Olympic legend Santiago Lange to retire following the Worlds.
Numbers Game
An interesting tidbit about the 49er racing. Teams earn their sub-100 sail numbers in the 49er by coming in gold fleet within their career and then must sail with a sub-100 number from then on. It is a sign of accomplishment for all teams, and they can all tell you when they ‘got their number’. At the 49er Worlds this year, there is so much depth and experience that no new numbers will be issued. As you might expect from the high point of Olympic sailing, each quad, all 25 teams in the gold fleet, have been there before.
Appealing Leaderboard
On day 3, we reported that Botin and Trittel (ESP) had asked for and received redress for a collision they were involved in during race 8.
Overnight and during the day off, a series of appeals were launched, ultimately launching the Spaniards into the overall lead. Their on-water scores were DNF and 11, the initial redress gave them a 24 and 6.8, and now they subsequently were awarded an 8th and a 2.8.
The first appeal of the initial decision came from the Spanish, claiming the 24th place was incorrect and they should be awarded the place they were in when the collision occurred. The appeal jury agreed and knocked down their score to an 8th, which had a mathematical impact on the average points award for Race 9, moving them down to a 2.8 for that race.
After hearing of the updated scoring, the defending world Champions and previous regatta leaders, Lambriex and van de Werken (NED), lodged a protest, stating their placings were negatively impacted by something that was not their fault, a fairly common strategy for Race Official protesting.
Credit: Sander van der Borch / World Sailing. 15 August 2023.
The jury decided late last night, on the day off, that their protest was too late to be held and, therefore, invalid.
There is often another appeal window just before the medal race and perhaps the case will be under dispute a further time before it is settled.
