Mills and Hughes lead on penultimate day

There was yet more waiting for the wind at the Junior 470 World Championships in Poland

The shifty wind conditions didn’t make it easy for the Race Management today to get the last qualifying races started at the Junior 470 World Championships for Men/Mixed and Women crews. Both events have reached their sixth day, with twelve races completed. Steven LeFevre and Steven Krol (NED) took back the lead in the Men's class and Hannah Mills and Katrina Hughes (GBR) have held onto their lead. 
 
Men:

After hours of waiting for the wind to become stable, the sailors were given the chance to make their last attempts to make it to the medal race, or improve their situation for a chance of a medal. It became a nervous situation. After some general recalls, eleven crews suffered from the “Black Flag” rule. However, no title contenders were among them.
 
During today’s first race, Steven LeFevre and Steven Krol (NED) saw their chances for the title weakening slightly as Lior Lavie and Yam Amir (ISR) took first place, with the Dutch only managing sixtth.

In race twelve, however, both leaders slipped into a wind hole and were forced to watch as the rest of the fleet sailed by. “The wind totally dropped in the middle of the course and we saw the whole fleet sail past. Fortunately the Israeli’s and Swedish had the same problem. We knew that we could afford another really bad result, and they couldn’t. We decided to point our strategy to put ourselves in front of them and stay out of trouble.” LeFevre said
 
Steven LeFevre and Steven Krol joined, and started sailing 470’s in early 2007 after a successful one person Laser dinghy period. LeFevre won silver at the 2006 Laser Radial Worlds, gold at the 2006 Radial Europeans, and silver in the Laser standard at the 2006 Qingdao Test Event. Krol also had a successful Laser Radial period with a bronze medal in the 2007 Laser Radial Worlds as a highlight.
 
“We are stronger downwind than upwind, maybe we have a feel for it from sailing Lasers. It’s also something between the ears. When we round the upper mark, we head downwind and think: Come on, let’s take them all! We are fast in strong winds, we proved that and we are very happy that we get such good results in light wind events such as this. We have gained a lot of experience at the Semaine Olympique in Hyères and at the 470 Europeans this year, which were light wind events as well. “ LeFevre said.
 
For the Dutch, it will not be easy to defend their golden position and finish the job. Luca and Roberto Dubbini (ITA) are currently in second overall with a six point difference. Lior Lavie and Yam Amir (ISR) are in third with a nine point difference on the leader. With the double points scoring in tomorrow’s medal race in mind, the Dutch cannot afford to have the Italians be more than one boat ahead of them, and the Israeli’s, three.
  
Women

Hannah Mills and Katrina Hughes (GBR) shared the honours of today’s races with Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP), both scoring a second and first place.
 
The girls from Great Britain have created a solid position to go into tomorrow’s medal race. With an eight point lead on Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP), they can finish anywhere as long as they do not allow more than two boats in between them and the Spanish.

For the Spanish ladies, this is a difficult situation as Sweden’s Lisa Ericson and Astrid Gabrielsson could profit from a situation where the GBR girls try to keep Pacheco and Betanzos in their grip, and walk away with the silver medal.
 
Only Great Britain and Spain have a chance for the Gold medal.
 
Results:

Men

Pos	Helm/Crew	Sail Number	Tot
1	Steven LEFEVRE, Steven KROL	NED 77	56
2	Luca DUBBINI, Roberto DUBBINI	ITA 4	62
3	Lior LAVIE, Yam AMIR	ISR 9	65
4	Victor BERGSTROM, Marcus DACKHAMMAR	SWE 333	79
5	Sofian BOUVET, Jeremie MION	FRA 27	83

Women

Pos	Helm/Crew	Sail Number	Tot
1	Hannah MILLS, Katrina HUGHES	GBR 835	18
2	Tara PACHECO, Berta BETAZOS	ESP 696	26
3	Lisa ERICSON, Astrid, GABRIELSSON	SWE 33	37
4	Annika BOCHMAN, Anika LORENZ	GER 4983	63
5	Tina LUTZ, Susann BEUCKE	GER 51	63