One extreme to another

It was a testing light wind day in Hyeres at the French Olympic Sailing week

The wind tested the skills of the racing committee and sailors for the first day of finals in the 40th Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères. Some top names scored big points while light wind specialists were able to show their full potential. The race inside the race, for Olympic selections, intensified between some teams. Thursday will see the last opportunity for qualifying in the medal race.

It was a totally different day this morning in Hyères with the palm trees moving slightly in the remains of a dying Mistral. The wind shifted all day from the south-west to the East building in a sea breeze by mid afternoon. Regatta PRO, Ion Echave had already announced, in the early team leader’s meeting, that the day could be unpredictable. The intention of the race committees to start two to three races in each class, could take all day he had warned, and it did. Starting on time at 11am, the 45 races, run in the six racing areas, concluded eight hours later! The committees spent the day moving the marks around to follow the wind.

In spite of the difficult conditions it was a great day for the Australians and Dutch, leading in four classes. Sarah Blank (AUS) increased her lead in the Laser Radial with two second places, while World champions and World number ones, Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby (AUS), have claimed top position in the Tornado with two bullets. Jessica Crisp (AUS) reached third place overall in the RS:X women after winning the first race and scoring two points in the following. Casper Bouman (NED) seemed to have finally adapt to lighter air to conserve his advantage on the men's RS:X division with a fourth and a second while in the 470 men, a first and a second place lifts Sven and Calle Coster (NED) to the top of the leader board.

The third day of the regatta confirms the British domination of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas who have added two more victories in the Sonar. Damien Seguin (FRA) double first place in the 2.4 keeps him ahead of the fleet. Heiko Kroeger (GER) has discarded an OCS to jump to second overall, only two points away from Seguin.

Three races completed in the Yngling class see little change in the leading trio. However, the Russian battle for selection intensifies with Skudina and Basalkina’s teams neck to neck in sixth and seventh position.

Japanese 470 sailors, Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata, are leading the women's fleet. Earlier leaders Ingrid Petitjean and Nadège Douroux collected high scores and have dropped down to tenth overall. There was alo a change of leadership in the Finn, Laser and 49er classes. World number one ranked Jonas Hoegh-Christensen takes control in the Finn, Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast (USA) in the 49er while in the Laser, mixed results for the leaders reverse the leading trio bringing Andrew Murdoch (NZL) in the lead. Regatta favourites Tom Slingsby (AUS) and Paul Goodison (GBR) are underperforming in 16th and 25th position.

Some top names didn’t make the cut into the Gold fleet this morning. In the 470 men, Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page (AUS) could not discard an earlier disqualification after a starboard incident with a Russian boat and raced in the silver fleet. British 49er sailors Morrison and Rhodes who had twice suffered from gear failure could not come back with only four races sailed and no discard. The ex-world champions missed out on the Gold fleet and decided to end their regatta to go home and rest.

Results:

LASER RADIAL

1-Sarah Blanck (Australia) 7 points (1,2,1,1,2,2,)
2-Evi Van Acker (Belgium) 16 points (2,2,3,6,3,6,)
3-Lijia Xu (China) 18 points (3,4,7,3,1,35,)
4-Anna Tunnicliffe (United States O) 19 points (6,11,2,1,7,3,)
5-Nathalie Brugger (Switzerland) 24 points (5,3,4,7,11,5,)

LASER

1-Andrew Murdoch (New Zealand) 14 points (2,3,6,1,2,13,)
2-Michael Leigh (Canada) 21 points (2,3,2,4,10,46,)
3-Nick Thompson (Great Britain) 24 points (3,1,1,1,18,33,)
4-Andreas Geritzer (Austria) 25 points (6,4,5,9,1,15,)
5-Tonci Stipanovic (Croatia) 28 points (10,9,1,6,19,2,)

SONAR

1-John Robertson (Great Britain) 6 points (1,3,1,1,1,1,1,)
2-Jostein Stordahl (Norway) 14 points (: 3,1,2,2,4,OCS ,2,)
3-Marco Collinetti (Italy) 23 points (4,2,4,5,6,4,4,)
4-Sven Reiger (Austria) 26 points (5,4,7,7,2,3,5,)
5-Tao Wang (China) 29 points (DNF ,OCS ,6,6,3,2,3,)

TORNADO

1-Darren Bundock / Glenn Ashby (Australia) 22 points (6,7,5,2,7,1,1,)
2-Fernando Echavarri / Anton Paz (Spain) 23 points (3,3,2,5,OCS ,3,7,)
3-Mitch Booth / Pim Nieuwenhuis (The Netherlands) 25 points (1,5,12,1,1,19,5,)
4-Leigh Mcmillan / Will Howden (Great Britain) 27 points (7,6,4,7,2,5,3,)
5-Francesco Marcolini / Edoardo Bianchi (Italy) 31 points (8,1,11,OCS ,3,2,6,)

YNGLING

1-Silja Sofia Lehtinen (Finland) 19 points (2,4,6,2,13,2,3,)
2-Siren Sundby (Norway) 21 points (8,5,1,6,2,3,4,)
3-Ulrike Schü Schuemann (Germany) 36 points (1,2,12,5,11,17,5,)
4-Anne-Claire le Berre 37 points (14,10,5,4,3,8,7,)
5-Sarah Ayton (Great Britain) 39 points (3,1,14,3,7,11,16,)

2.4 m

1-Damien Seguin (France) 5 points (1,3,2,1,1,)
2-Heiko Kroeger (Germany) 7 points (OCS ,2,1,2,2,)
3-Thierry Schmitter (The Netherlands) 9 points (2,1,3,5,3,)
4-Helena Lucas (Great Britain) 14 points (3,4,4,3,4,)
5-Jens Als Andersen (Denmark) 21 points (7,5,7,4,5,)

49er

1-Tim Wadlow / Chris Rast (United States O) 31 points (5,6,2,2,10,6,4,6,)
2-Luka Rodion / Leonchuk George (Ukraine) 34 points (2,14,1,1,2,17,10,4,)
3-Dave Evans / Simon Hiscocks (Great Britain) 36 points (5,2,2,2,7,4,14,15,)
4-Xabier Fernandez / Iker Martinez de (Spain) 41 points (2,1,3,12,1,14,12,10,)
5-Federico Alonso / Arturo Nest Alonso (Spain) 44 points (DNF ,5,10,5,6,2,13,3,)

470 Women

1-Ai Kondo / Naoko Kamata (Japan) 32 points (4,10,2,3,6,7,17,)
2-Giulia Conti / Giovanna Micol (Italy) 39 points (9,13,3,5,30,1,8,)
3-Stefanie Rothweiler / Vivien Kussatz (Germany) 43 points (14,12,9,10,1,5,6,)
4-Maria Ferna Sesto / Consuelo Monsegur (Argentina) 49 points (13,4,8,2,20,11,11,)
5-Marcelien de Koning / Lobke Berkhout (The Netherlands) 50 points (2,2,4,DNF ,3,OCS ,1,)

FINN

1-Jonas Hogh Christ (Denmark) 25 points (6,1,3,12,9,4,2,)
2-Gasper Vincec (Slovenia) 26 points (7,2,9,2,5,5,5,)
3-Edward Wright (Great Britain) 33 points (15,5,7,9,4,1,7,)
4-Pieter Jan Postma (The Netherlands) 39 points (1,7,11,4,8,13,8,)
5-Anthony Nossiter (Australia) 39 points (11,10,21,5,1,6,6,)

RS :X Women

1-Zofia Klepacka (Poland) 11 points (1,1,1,3,8,5,)
2-Jannicke Stalstrom (Norway) 22 points (7,14,8,2,2,3,)
3-Jessica Crisp (Australia) 29 points (13,9,6,11,1,2,)
4-Flavia Tartaglini (Italy) 31 points (8,4,5,15,3,11,)
5-Olga Maslivets (Ukraine) 32 points (2,30,3,6,20,1,)

470 Men

1-Sven Coster / Kalle Coster (The Netherlands) 13 points (1,3,6,8,1,2,)
2-Nick Rogers / Joe Glanfield (Great Britain) 15 points (1,2,1,5,6,10,)
3-Benjamin Bonnaud / Romain Bonnaud (Sports Nautiques Sablais) 22 points (9,2,3,16,2,7,)
4-Patryk Piasecki / Kacper Zieminski (Poland) 23 points (4,8,2,1,8,26,)
5-Gabrio Zandona / Andrea Trani (Italy) 28 points (9,4,7,4,7,6,)

RS :X Men

1-Casper Bouman (The Netherlands) 8 points (1,2,2,1,4,2,)
2-Richard Stauffacher (Switzerland) 13 points (5,1,1,2,15,4,)
3-Dorian Van Rijssel (The Netherlands) 13 points (2,2,2,1,17,6,)
4-Przemyslaw Miarczynski (Poland) 13 points (3,4,1,2,6,3,)
5-Ricardo Santos (Brazil) 18 points (10,6,4,6,1,1,)

Full results available here .