Sick Performance by Norway in the FX

Norway has taken the top spot in the women’s skiff at the end of day two of the 49er FX World Championships. Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland have taken a two-point lead from the Spanish team who were on top at the start of the day. But there’s only four points splitting the top four teams from Norway, Spain, Australia and Canada. What’s more, there are 10 different nations represented in the top 10 of the 49erFX standings after six qualifying races.

The Norwegian lead is even more impressive considering that Edland was feeling ill today. Andersen admitted to being surprised to hearing they were top of the leaderboard after finishing 25th in the last race of the late afternoon session of three qualifying heats. “Oh, we are? I didn’t know,” she beamed, on hearing that Norway is first overall. “That’s definitely going to cheer me up. We had a good day, we had a really tough last one, but we have just tried to get through the day with my sick crew, Nora. She’s been feeling bad the whole day and we’re just trying to make it simple. But somehow it worked, so I’m happy.” Suffering from dehydration, Edland has gone to hospital and hopefully will recover sufficiently to be back on the boat tomorrow.

BACK SEAT DRIVER

The Spanish story is also impressive for different reasons. Even if Paola Barcelo has been to two Olympics Games and has won the World Championships as a crew, switching to the back of the boat and picking up the tiller for the first time while new teammate Maria Cantero does the hard work at the front – they shouldn’t be making it look so straightforward. “I’m also surprised, I have to confess,” smiles Barcelo with typical humility. “You shouldn’t be,” Cantero interjects. Barcelo continues: “I have to say that I’m surrounded with a really good team.

“Maria has really good experience and she’s sailing the boat really, really fast and well. And also we have Xabi as a coach which is helping us to improve fast and faster.” Xabi is Xabi Fernandez, former 49er World Champion and an Olympic gold and silver medallist. “The legend, exactly,” says Barcelo. “He’s pushing every day, every single day. Sometimes he makes us get angry but it’s good,” she laughs. A bit like the Norwegians, the Spanish finished on a downer, scoring a 23rd, but you’d never know it. The vibe in the team is very relaxed, with a lot of respect going in both directions.

Meanwhile Laura Harding and Annie Wilmot took the last bullet of the day, and that – along with a second place in the previous heat – was enough to launch the Aussies up into third place overall.

49ER MEN

POLE POSITION

Polish teams have locked out the front of the grid as they take the top two spots in the 49er Men’s fleet. Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch have moved into the lead, just two points ahead of teammates Dominik Buksak and Adam Glogowski. Jack Ferguson and Jack Hildebrand from Australia also had a really good day in the light airs to move up to third overall, while previous leaders from day one, the Olympic Champions from Spain, have dropped to fourth overall. On equal points with Diego Botin and Florian Trittel and moving up to fifth place overall are the three-time World Champions from the Netherlands, Bart Lambriex van Aanholt and Floris van de Werken.

Third placed from day one, Swedish duo Marius Westerlind and Olle Arronsson were unable to live up to their outstanding start and slip to 15th overall. Even so, the remain upbeat about their performance so far. “I think we’ve had the potential to do quite well since this spring where we really developed our speed,” said Westerlind. “Olle has been really good on the controls and the settings and I think we’ve had some good starts so we’ve just managed to put everything together and sail smartly. We managed to activate our brains yesterday and sail fast and start well.”

NACRA 17

(ALMOST) BACK TO SQUARE ONE FOR THE NACRAS

How gutting must it be to put together a strong series of scores from six qualifying races, and then for your reward to be folded into just one single race result? Effectively that’s what has happened to John Gimson and Anna Burnet. Despite a wobbly 9th place in the last heat of the afternoon, the British cling on to their overall lead in the Nacra 17 Worlds. They finished four points ahead of the Turkish team of Sinem Kurtbay and Alican Kaynar, but Thursday is effectively a reset of the regatta for the top 20 who progress to the Gold Fleet competition.

Instead of the four-point advantage the British would normally carry into tomorrow ahead of the Turkish, Gimson and Burnet start with a first place and Kurtbay and Kaynar start with a second, and so on. Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei won the last race of the day, moving the local Italians to third overall ahead of Argentina’s Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco.

BIT OF A RELIEF

Gimson said he was relieved to be escaping the pressure of racing in a 40-boat fleet and now whittling down to 20 on the start line. “Yeah, 40 is really quite scary to race in. The leverage just from the length of the start line is huge. So now we’re 20 the racing is a bit more fast and furious. Everyone’s a bit closer and the split from the start line is a lot smaller.”

Shrinking a series of six races does nothing to change the psychology of how you race, says Argentinian crew Bosco. “I mean, every race is a battle and you’re not thinking about a format you are racing the regatta race by race,” she said. “It seems like we almost start again with this format, but it doesn’t change our approach to the race course.”