49er
Clearwater, FL. The 2016 49er and 49er FX World Championships, first time ever in the continental U.S. have already announced a champion. The Kiwi boys have done it again. Just two races in for the day, and by way of calculations, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have officially clenched the win by a mere few points, not even needing to sail a third. The duo led the leaderboard going into the day by an impressive 48 point spread [discounting drops]. Scoring a 2nd out of the gate, then following up with a hard hitting 3rd, these Kiwis soon realized they just may have done it yet again. “Yeah, we definitely feel great about the win, and hopefully now, we can just focus on getting that important win in Rio,” a satisfied Blair Tuke remarks.
London Olympic gold medalist Nathan Outteridge, who late yesterday struggled a bit due to an pectoral injury, definitely woke up feeling much better as he and crew Iain Jensen scored a steady, 4th, 9th, and bullet pushing Austrian veterans Nico Delle Karth and Niko Resch back into third only by tiebreaker in scoring. This pairing of Austrians vs. Australians have seen a head to head match before as the Nico took silver over Nathan in the 2007 Worlds in Portugal.
Bejjing Olympic gold medalist Jonas Warrer and crew Anders Thomsen are sitting just eight points from the podium. These two will be looking to take on both the Austrians and Austrailians in the final medal race at 3pm EST.
The Spanish Alonso brothers are the juicy story of the day due to their trials weighing on the finishes of their countrymen Diego Botín and Iago Lopez Marra. Botín and Marra needed to finish in the top 8 places to officially knock the Alonso’s out of Olympic contention. With this very real possibility in mind, the Alonso brothers were seen to be match racing, sending Botín/Marra into dead last during race two of the day. Botín/Marra are now sitting in 11th, but protests are pending against the Alonso brothers…To be continued…
The American team of Thomas Barrows and Joe Morris didn’t have a particularly impressive day, but good enough by their trial standards as they have finished the regatta two places behind Judge Ryan and Hans Henken. The two points were not enough to edge out Barrows/Morris as they sat eight points out.
FX
Betanzos and Echegoyen are still leading the day even after a slow start to the morning. These two couldn’t quite find their groove in the lighter pressure as they struggled outside the top ten finishing 10th and 17th, but finally found their groove taking 2nd in the last race of the day. Betanzos and Echegoyen go into the medal race with 11 points, meaning they need to be 6th or better to take the World title.
Reigning World Champions Julia Conti and Francesca Clapcich have come up from their initial performance to start this 2016 worlds quite a bit. They seemed in the groove today scoring a 4th and 1st, but had an encounter off the line costing them quite a few places. The 18th they scored in the last race will count as one of their low point drops so they still have a fighting chance to leap over the Spanish in the final medal race.
The Danish Schütt sisters had a very impressive regatta sitting currently in third ahead of their uber competitive countrymen Hansen/Iversen, as well as Neilson/Olsen. Even though the sisters currently sit 5 places ahead of Hansen/Iversen, these two Danes have officially qualified for the Danish Olympic selection. Jena Mai Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen were the favored boat going into this final selection regatta. Ida Marie Baad Neilsen and Marie Thursgaard Olsen did not make the medal race after a BFD in the second race of the day sitting them in twelfth. Congrats Jena and Katja!
