Tied on the final day

Showdown time at Yngling Europeans as the Medal Race gets underway tomorrow

Going into the Medal Race on Saturday at the Yngling European Championships, seven points is the difference between the first six boats. They will all sail for the Gold and the Championship tomorrow. Today, Friday, the opening series was concluded. All the ten races was sailed as scheduled in various conditions from very light winds yesterday and the nice 12-16 knots breeze that met the sailors in the two races of today.

Renee Groeneveld, Annenieke Bes and Merel Wittevee (NED) showed consistency and with a sixth and a fifth today they closed in on Sarah Ayton's (GBR) team and they are now on equal points at the first place. Two points behind the leading duo is the team of Anna Basalkina (RUS) closely followed by the teams of Sally Barkow (USA), Many Mulder (NED) and Ekaterina Skudina (RUS). One of these six teams will be the European Champion tomorrow.

The fleet is very close together and there are very small margins between first and last boat. In the first race of today Ulrike Schuemann, Julia Bleck and Ute Hoepner (GER) was fighting for the win when penalized close to the finish line. After completing their penalty turn they lost 20 boats. After ten races no team in the 23 boat fleet have all single digit results, in fact only three boats have managed to have 8 of their races among the top ten.

Besides the Medal Race scheduled for tomorrow a Final Race will be sailed by the teams places 11-last. The Final Race will have the same format as a Medal Race with short course, double points, on water umpiring and no discard. This concept have been brought forward to give all teams the opportunity to sail in the Medal Race format under Championship conditions.

Results:

Pos	Helm/Crew	Sail Number	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot
1	Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb/Pippa Wilson	GBR 12	1	8	RAF	1	7	3	1	13	1	14	49
2	Renee Groeneveld/Annenieke Bes/Merel Witteveen	NED 11	13	4	2	4	1	9	17	5	6	5	49
3	Basalkina Anna/Ukraintseva Vladislava/Maximova Ekaterina	RUS 4	16	2	12	12	9	2	5	1	2	6	51
4	Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi	USA 337	4	1	4	22	5	12	2	9	4	11	52
5	Mandy Mulder/Brechtje Van der Werf/Floortje Hendriksen	NED 1	5	7	1	9	18	5	13	3	3	9	55
6	Ekaterina Skudina/Diana Krutskikh/Natalia Ivanova	RUS 8	15	5	5	2	8	15	4	2	14	1	56
7	Schuemann, Ulrike/Bleck, Julia/Hoepfner, Ute	GER 261	9	6	8	8	4	8	10	6	22	OCS	81
8	Monica Azon/Graciela Pisonero/Sandra Azon	ESP 3	14	3	14	3	6	10	14	8	19	15	87
9	Le Helley Anne/Lepesant Catherine/Gerecht Julie	FRA 7	3	10	18	15	16	13	3	7	15	10	92
10	Sofia Bekatorou/Sofia Papadopoulou/Virginia Kravarioti	GRE 7	11	14	20	10	11	11	7	10	10	8	92
11	Krystal Weir/Karyn Gojnich/Angela Farrell	AUS 59	22	DSQ	9	5	2	14	6	RAF	11	2	95
12	Trine Palludan/Susanne Boidin/Ida Hartvig	DEN 195	8	20	OCS	7	17	1	16	18	13	3	103
13	Marjon Kooistra/Marye Faber/Marye Kampen	NED 111	17	17	11	6	3	6	15	20	16	18	109
14	Le Berre Anne-Claire/Ponsar Alice/Deplanque Marion	FRA 9	19	13	3	17	21	19	9	19	8	4	111
15	Siren Sundby/Lise Birgitte Fredriksen/Alexandra Koefoed	NOR 406	10	DNF	OCS	19	10	7	20	4	5	12	111
16	Annelies Thies/Lieske Wierenga/Caroline Heerema	NED 350	2	12	10	13	14	18	11	12	20	20	112
17	Song Xia Qun/Li Xiao Ni/Yu Yan Li	CHN 1	21	11	6	11	15	16	21	15	9	13	117
18	Li Jie/Wang Ru/Gao Yang	CHN 3	6	9	16	23	22	21	19	14	7	7	121
19	Dominique Provoyeur/Penny Alison/Kim Rew	RSA 1	7	19	15	18	23	4	8	21	17	16	125
20	Chiara Calligaris/Francesca Scognamillo/Giulia Pignolo	ITA 16	20	16	7	21	19	17	22	11	12	17	140
21	Silvia Roca/Eva Gonzalez Moujir/Lara Cacabelos Afonso	ESP 8	23	15	19	14	13	22	12	16	18	22	151
22	Jildau fer Horst/Amy Righolt/Hilke Harns	NED 335	12	18	17	20	20	23	18	17	21	19	162
23	Lianne Kedde/Margot Eelkman - Rooda/Chantel Hakkel	NED 336	18	21	13	16	12	20	23	DSQ	23	21	167