Three in a row

Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhout have won their third successive World Championship

With the wind swinging back to the North for the Women’s 470 Medal Race it was a return to the shifty patchy conditions we have become familiar with over the course of the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais.

Much like Morrison and Rhodes in the 49er Medal Race earlier today, Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhout (NED) only had to keep their eyes on Ingrid Peitijean and Nadege Douroux (FRA) to ensure victory. The French team needed to finish six places in front of the Dutch to take the Gold Medal.

De Koning and Berkhout managed to squeeze in front of Petitjean and Douroux out of the start, slapping a perfect, tight cover on the French team. From there it was simply a case of ensuring they stayed between the French and the finish line to take the World Championship win.

Again like the 49er the closer battle was set to be for the Bronze medal. Going into the race Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata (JPN) were third overall but with only two points separating them and fourth placed Brits, Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark the battle was on. Bassadone and Clark started nearest to the pin with the Japanese starting just to windward.

Bassadone and Clark nailed the start and looked good from the word go, leading round the top mark, with the Japanese back in third position. If the Brits won the race and the French were last it was technically possible for Bassadone and Clark to take the Silver medal, though with Petitjean and Douroux holding fourth after the first leg it looked doubtful.

By the second lap the Brits were doing a horizon job on the rest of the fleet as they stretched their legs and could nail every shift coming down the course.

Briefly it looked as though the Brits might do enough to take Silver as the French team slipped back to ninth position and looked vulnerable to being overtaken by the US team of Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving.

However, the French held on so with the British winning the race, they take the Bronze Medal, while Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhout win their third consecutive World Championship. Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux held on to eighth position meaning they hold the Silver Medal spot.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	MR	Tot
1	DE KONING, Marcelien	LOBKE, Berkhout	4	2	1	2	1	1	2	1	1	8	19
2	PETITJEAN, Ingrid	NADèGE, Douroux	5	25	2	1	6	3	1	2	2	16	38
3	BASSADONE, Christina	SASKIA, Clark	13	1	1	8	3	13	4	7	3	2	42
4	KONDO, Ai	NAOKO, Kamata	1	6	10	4	5	2	5	6	9	10	48
5	TORGERSSON, Therese	VENDELA, Zachreisson	3	5	3	2	1	33	11	10	6	14	55
6	CONTI, Giulia	GIOVANNA, Micol	5	3	5	33	8	16	8	5	7	4	61
7	OLIVEIRA, Fernanda	ISABEL, Swan	17	11	6	6	4	11	17	3	4	12	74
8	KORNECKI, Nike	VERED, Bouskila	6	10	3	9	10	6	9	27	29	6	86
9	LECOINTRE, Camille	GWENDOLYN, Lemaitre	3	9	8	5	11	7	19	14	12	18	87
10	MAXWELL, Erin	ISABELLE, Kinsolving	26	19	4	3	13	10	3	19	11	20	102