Wilmot and Page set to win

Paul Brotherton reports from a more tactically exciting day on the water at the 470 Worlds in San Francisco

"Not good enough." That was the frank appraisal of Nick Rogers of their performance in todays racing, "not today anyway."

Finally, boats were able to spread across the course rather than just performing a cavalry charge to the left. The ebb tide still had plenty of guts in the channel, where it had run pretty much slack on the city shore. Old habits die hard however and still over half of the first two fleets to start punched hard to the left. The gains came from the right and on appraising the day Glanfield confirmed the reason for their relatively poor scores for the day, "We just didn't hit the right hard enough, we kept going that way but then always came back to soon." As to the chances of the winning "impossible, well at least not at all probable, they just need two more results from four races."

"They" of course are Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page. The reigning World Champions can still, theoretically at least, still be beaten but unless Gildas Phillippe and Nicolas Leberre in second, and the British lads win the remaining races and the Australians suffer a massive dip in form, the chances are remote.

The Women could still swing either way. Having sailed around the Dutch leaders in both of todays races the French World Ranked No one sailors Petitjean and Douroux, must be hoping that the increasing pressure may start to push De Koning and Berkhout out of the comfort zone they have been operating in all week. In the last six races the French have scored a total of 11 points, the Dutch meanwhile, dominant on the first two days, scored 22 points over the same six races. Only five points behind with four races to go gives the French Olympians plenty of time to snatch victory. There was evidence of
increased anxiety from the leaders today. Smooth clam communication and handling was substituted by a bit of flapping and just a few crossed words. The discards now favour the Dutch, throwing out a fifth and a sixth, gives them some fat on the bone. The French with discards of 11 and 15 cannot afford to get caught in the thatch.

Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark recovered well from a shocker the day before. A first and a third today puts them just in the medals and they may, just may be able to profit from any over engagement by the two form boats.

As the womens event, the more intriguing of the two fleets comes to a conclusion, the mixture of calmness and desire needs to be carefully managed. The next four races will make thrilling viewing.

Results:

Pos-Nationality Helm/Crew, Points

Men

1-AUS Nathan Wilmot and Malcom Page, 13
2-FRA Gildas Philippe and Nicolas Leberre, 28
3-GBR Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, 38
4-AUS Matthew Belcher and Nick Behrens, 41
5-POR Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes, 44

Women

1-NED Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout, 18
2-FRA Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux, 23
3-GBR Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark, 25
4-CZE Lenka Smidova and Elizabeth Kratzig, 28
5-ISR Nike Kornecki and Vered Bouskila, 34