25 points ahead

Martinez and Fernandez continue to show the 49er fleet a clean pair of heals at their European Championship

Iker Martínez and Xabi Fernández and the Alonso brothers are still at the top of the overall standings at the 49er European championship – Madrid 2016. After the fourth day of competition the Spanish teams have increased their lead over their immediate rivals.

Today’s three races of the final series brought the consolidation of the first and second place overall for the two Spanish crews. Martinez and Fernandez are now 25 points ahead of the Spanish brothers from Asturias and 31 points from Ukrainian sailors Rodion Luka and Geogiy Leonchuk in third.

Beginning today, Thursday, was the final series of the championship with the fleet divided in Gold and Silver fleets. The top 25 teams sailed three races while the silver group sailed only two, all in strong south westerly winds of 17 to 20 knots in the famous bay of Palma.

Iker Martínez and Xabi Fernández had an excellent day with a first, a third and another bullet in the third race. They were undoubtedly the best team of the day and by far the most consistent in the series as most crews have at least one poor race.

“It’s been another tough day again," commented Xabi Fernandez at the end of the day at Club Nàutic S’Arenal, "especially due to the waves, but things have gone well for us and we now lead the standings with a comfortable advantage. But we have to concentrate because there are still five races of the final series left and the Medal Race”.

Federico and Arturo Alonso had a more discrete performance with a fifth, fourth and a thirteenth, although they were going to finish third in the last race. “We were third but 200 metres from the finish line we faced some strange waves that made us capsize and we lost ten places”, the helmsman explained. “If we hadn’t capsized we would have ten points less, we would have more advantage over the third placed team and would be closer to Iker and Xabi.”

The Ukrainian team of Rodion Luka and Geogiy Leonchuk, climbed up from sixth to third place overall after finishing third, seventeenth and second today.

It was a day to forget for Swedish team Jonas Lindberg and Kalle Torlen, who had been in third place overall for two days. However, a retirement, an 18th and a 21st today dropped the pairing down to 14 overall.

The young Austrian crew Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Leopold Resch, who have already confirmed their participation at the coming Olympics, are still fourth, just one point ahead of the Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello.

Finally the Australian team of Nathan Outteridge and Austin Ben began to show their form and the reason why they were crowned world champions in January. With a fourth, ninth and sixth place in today’s races they climbed up nine places and are tenth overall. The 2007 world champions, British team Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes also climbed nine places and are 15th overall.

Three races of the final series are scheduled for Saturday at 12:00 hours at Club Nàutic S’Arenal. On Sunday the top ten teams will sail the Medal Race, which scores double and cannot be discarded.

The 49er European Championship is sponsored by Fundación Madrid 2016, the regional ministries of Tourism, Sports and Youth of the Govern de les Illes Balears and Llucmajor city council. Firms Engel & Völkers and Cadillac are collaborators and Seiko is the class sponsor.

Results:

Pos	Helm/Crew	Sail Number	Qualifying points	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	Iker Martinez	ESP - 7	19	1	3	1	24
	Xabi Fernandez
2	Federico Alonso Tellechea	ESP - 19	27	5	4	13	49
	Arturo Alonso Tellechea
3	Rodion Luka	UKR - 3	33	3	17	2	55
	Geogiy Leonchuk
4	Nico Delle Karth	AUT - 10	27	14	8	8	57
	Nikolaus Leopold Resch
5	Pietro Sibello	ITA - 4	31	2	21	4	58
	Gianfranco Sibello
6	Monteau Alexandre	FRA - 31	40	6	10	16	72
	Guillou Damien
7	Tim Wadlow	USA - 5	37	8	23	5	73
	Chris Rast
8	Kostov Pavle	CRO - 29	40	7	16	15	78
	Cupac Petar
9	Peter Krüger Andersen	DEN - 21	42	13	6	19	80
	Dennis Dengsø Andersen
10	Nathan Outteridge	AUS - 1	63	4	9	6	82
	Ben Austin
11	Paul Campbell-James	GBR - 9	49	DNC	5	9	89
	Mark Asquith
12	Jan Peter Peckolt	GER - 6	52	11	7	20	90
	Hannes Peckolt
13	Emmanuel Dyen	FRA - 14	47	10	15	18	90
	Yan Rocherieux
14	Jonas Lindberg	SWE - 25	27	DNF	18	21	92
	Kalle Torlen
15	Lagraviere Morgan	FRA - 20	53	19	2	22	96
	Christidis Stéphane
16	Andre Fonseca	BRA - 11	64	16	11	7	98
	Rodrigo Duarte
17	Jonas Warrer	DEN - 8	36	DNF	14	23	99
	Martin Kirketerp
18	Giuseppe Angilella	ITA - 24	67	12	12	10	101
	Pietro Zucchetti
19	Stevie Morrison	GBR - 2	72	DSQ	1	3	102
	Ben Rhodes
20	Jorge Lima	POR - 12	51	OCS	13	17	107
	Francisco Andrade
21	Christopher Gundersen	NOR - 17	61	17	19	11	108
	Frode Bovim
22	Emil Toft Nielsen	DEN - 980	66	15	22	12	115
	Simon Toft Nielsen
23	John Pink	GBR - 23	62	9	24	24	119
	Simon Hiscocks
24	Daan Schutte	NED - 32	68	18	20	14	120
	Wilco Stavenuiter
25	Janne Uusi-autti	FIN - 44	76	RDG	RDG	RDG	151
	Kalle Bask