From gold medals to World Championship titles

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan and Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie still in the chocolate at the 470 Worlds

Saturday August 10th 2013, Author: Luissa Smith, Location: France

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan (AUS) finished the Medal Race in 6th place to win the 470 World Championship gold, and Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (NZL) win their Medal Race to secure victory.

In a fitting anniversary for the newly crowned 2013 470 World Champions, it was exactly one year ago that Mat Belcher won Olympic Gold, with Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie achieving their gold medal glory shortly after on the Nothe Course in Weymouth. A fitting conclusion to the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of the International 470 Class.

It was a tense medal deciding day, with the top 8 boats in the 470 Men and 470 Women events ready for the challenge of the short course 25 minute double-points scoring medal race to decide the Gold, Silver and Bronze medallists. From a very light breeze in the morning, the wind was around 10 knots for racing.

470 Men

Leading the fleet going into the medal race, Belcher was on a mission to secure his fourth consecutive 470 world championship title – so a fight to the end was on the cards, particularly with the Greek team of Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis who were just 7 points behind the Australians. Mantis/Kagialis were on their fifth attempt to win a World Championship medal, and today marked the closest they had ever been to their goal.

Argentina’s 2012 Olympic bronze medallists and world #7 ranked pairing of Lucas Calabese/Juan de la Fuente faced an even tougher battle to step up to the podium, sitting 6 points behind the Greeks, and with France’s Pierre Leboucher/Nicolas Le Berre 4 points behind them. After a high scoring last day of finals, the French had their work cut out to claim a medal with only a front of pack finish set to guarantee a place on the podium.

The 470 Men Medal Race got underway at 1450 hours with the Greek team finding the best speed off the line, from their pin end start. But, leading the fleet to the windward mark were Leboucher/le Berre, who executed their medal winning strategy perfectly. Great Britain’s Luke Patience/Joe Glanfield, who had an outside chance at a medal, were in second place, with the USA’s Stu Mcnay/Dave Hughes in third.

Approaching the windward mark, Calabese/de la Fuente were forced to cross behind the fleet and suddenly found themselves drop from 4th place, and in with a shot at the bronze medal, to last overall. With the French leading, the silver medal was in their hands, and they remained in total control and safely secured the race win with a massive lead. Patience/Glanfield finished in second place and New Zealand’s Paul Snow-Hansen/Daniel Willcox in third.

Belcher/Ryan did what they needed to and finished in sixth place, which was more than enough to crown them as the 2013 470 World Champions – a year to the day that Belcher became the 2012 Olympic Champion. Leboucher/le Berre secured silver and Mantis/Kagialis bronze, despite finishing last in the medal race.

“I think it is more relief today,” said Belcher. “It is quite funny that it is exactly a year ago that I won Olympic Gold. For Will and I, we had a lot of pressure, and a lot of pressure on Will. This year since teaming up – it has been phenomenal. We are really excited, but more relieved than anything else to finish the season off like this.”

For Ryan, success cannot get any better in such a new partnership. “It is pretty unbelievable,” he said. “It has been four years coming to work towards helping Mat, Mal and Victor achieve their goal, and it is really nice that now I have had the opportunity to work a little bit closer towards mine. This is the first step, I am really enjoying it, and it has been a fantastic year for us. Having Mat at the back of the boat is phenomenal, I am the luckiest crew here. Victor looks after us too. I knew that we were always in with a chance and that was what we wanted at the beginning of the week, to make sure we came into the medal race with a chance. It is a good outcome.”

Four back to back World Championship titles must certainly be an unprecedented achievement in the sport. “The journey of last year and this year is phenomenal,” said Belcher. “I don’t really keep track of wins. But it is not just myself and obviously having that partnership with Mal and now to have the partnership with Will is quite something. This week has been really difficult, and I am about to become a father in three and a half weeks and have been studying, and there has been a lot of pressure on the people around me. All credit to Victor and Will for supporting me.”

Sixteen World Championship gold medals are now the legacy of 470 teams coached by Victor Kovalenko. “It means too long a time in the class,” smiled Kovalenko. “In my mind Mat, is the best 470 sailor ever in the history of the class. With four World Championship victories in a row and unbeaten over the past two years, that must make him the best sailor ever.”

France’s Pierre Leboucher/Nicolas le Berre have matched the silver medal Leboucher claimed at the 2012 470 Worlds with former crew Vincent Garos. “For me our objective was to finish in the top 8 here, so today is a bonus to get the silver medal. I liked the conditions today and we had really good speed and good tactics. Nicolas is a great crew.”

A World Championship medal has been five years in the making for Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis. “We are really happy about the results,” commented Kagialis. “I think we deserved a medal over the last three years, but we take it now. We didn’t have such a good race today, but we don’t care, the medal is what is important. It is very difficult in the economic situation in Greece, and I hope this will help us a lot over the next years on our road to Rio.”

470 Men – top 50 results

Pos	Sail	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Tot	Net
1	AUS 11	BELCHER Mat	RYAN Will	1	8	2	10	22	2	10	1	6	66	44
2	FRA 44	LEBOUCHER Pierre	LE BERRE Nicolas	2	6	DSQ	6	2	1	13	20	1	91	51
3	GRE 1	MANTIS Panaglotis	KAGIALIS Pavlos	8	28	10	5	6	3	2	5	8	83	55
4	ARG 7	CALABRESE Lucas	DE LA FUENTE Juan	14	7	9	1	4	11	8	3	7	70	59
5	GBR 863	PATIENCE Luke	GLANFIELD Joe	6	1	14	14	3	6	15	33	2	95	62
6	USA 1713	MC NAY Stu	HUGHES Dave	10	10	32	9	10	4	3	23	4	109	77
7	NZL 2	SNOW-HANSEN Paul	WILLCOX Daniel	3	15	1	17	26	OCS	18	2	3	127	87
8	FRA 27	BOUVET Sofian	MION Jeremie	4	9	5	29	14	23	4	19	5	117	88
9	GER 55	WAGNER Jasper	BALDEWEIN Dustin	7	12	25	32	5	9	7	18		115	83
10	GBR 861	ROGERS Nicholas	WILLIS Elliot	5	20	12	16	13	DNF	14	6		126	86
11	ESP 9	BARREIROS RODRIGUEZ Onan	CURBELO CABRERA Juan	16	5	3	13	25	20	16	17		115	90
12	FIN 7	LINDGREN Joonas	LINDGREN Niklas	36	2	16	11	16	13	1	14		108	92
13	JPN 12	MATSUNAGA Tetsuya	YOSHIDA Yugo	19	OCS	4	3	18	25	17	7		133	93
14	AUT 437	BARGEHR David	MAHR Lukas	11	11	15	15	21	16	37	4		130	93
15	ESP 769	MARTINEZ DORESTE Jorge	SARMIENTO PADILLA Aaron	17	17	20	31	7	26	6	11		135	104
16	GBR 843	WOOD Mike	BRAYSHAW Hugh	31	14	37	7	9	17	12	15		142	105
17	AUT 3	SCHMID Matthias	REICHSTAEDTER Florian	13	16	35	2	1	19	28	30		143	108
18	SUI 16	BRAUCHLI Yannick	HAUSSER Romuald	21	3	19	4	15	21	25	28		136	108
19	CRO 83	FANTELA Sime	MARENIC Igor	18	31	22	8	17	5	20	22		143	112
20	SWE 349	DAHLBERG Anton	BERGSTROM Fredrik	9	27	7	27	OCS	27	21	12		170	130
21	FRA 4	GUILBAUD Vianney	GUILLARM Vincent	38	4	11	20	19	15	24	38		169	131
22	GER 10	GERZ Ferdinand	FOLLMANN Patrick	12	18	33	34	20	10	5	37		169	132
23	BRA 1	MENDES Geison	THIESEN Gustavo	29	24	17	12	23	31	29	8		173	142
24	FRA 34	SKOCZEK BERNARD Gabriel	NEBOUT JAVAL Achille	20	21	8	35	24	7	33	39		187	148
25	GER 15	AUTENRIETH Julian	AUTENRIETH Philipp	26	29	6	19	11	29	35	29		184	149
26	JPN 4421	DOI Kazuto	IMAMURA Kiminiko	28	25	13	30	12	22	26	32		188	156
27	FRA 8	PEPONNET Kevin	LEBRUN Julien	35	23	30	18	29	12	34	13		194	160
28	FRA 21	QUIROGA Pierre	PEQUIN Clement	22	33	21	DPI	33	8	9	36		200	162
29	AUS 5	CRAWFORD Matthew	CRAWFORD Robert	39	19	18	24	28	28	36	10		202	166
30	AUS 6	CONWAY Alexander	CONWAY Patrick	24	37	24	39	34	24	11	26		219	180
31	ITA 2	ZANDONA Gabrio	DE FELICE Lorenzo	34	13	28	36	36	33	27	16		223	187
32	POR 7	MATOS ROSA Antonio	SCHEDEL Ricardo	23	36	38	21	35	18	31	25		227	189
33	GRE 333	KAVVAS Alexander	KAVVAS Giorgio	25	30	23	22	OCS	DSQ	23	27		230	190
34	ISR 17	COHEN Gal	FROYLICHE Dan	27	26	27	28	30	OCS	22	31		231	191
35	RSA 10	ASENATHI Jim	HUDSON Roger	32	35	26	38	8	OCS	19	35		233	193
36	RUS 5	SOZYKIN Pavel	GRIBANOV Denis	33	32	31	25	OCS	14	38	24		237	197
37	CHN 1267	LAN Hao	WANG Chao	37	34	36	26	27	OCS	30	9		239	199
38	ITA 29	SIVITZ KOSUTA Simon	FARNETI Jas	15	38	29	37	31	30	39	21		240	201
39	CAN 6	SAUNDERS Jacob	SAUNDERS Graeme	30	22	34	23	32	32	32	34		239	205
40	GRE 10	PAPOUTSOGLOU Vasilelos	ORFANOS Ioannis	6	14	2	5	10	1	5	1		42	28
41	TUR 1	CINAR Deniz	CINR Ates	1	13	1	10	3	13	17	3		59	42
42	ITA 25	FALCETELLI Francesco	CLEMENTI Enrico	12	18	8	3	9	5	26	6		87	61
43	BRA 37	PILLAR Fabio	MELECCHI Mathias	7	2	11	1	28	3	24	18		93	65
44	UKR 67	ZHURAVLOV Yuri	MATSUYEV Pavlo	5	16	7	12	29	9	3	14		95	66
45	RUS 2	SHEREMETYEV Mikhail	SHEREMATYEV Maxim	15	12	32	11	1	7	4	OCS		121	81
46	SLO 18	GULIC Andraz	NEVENY Mitja	9	8	19	14	2	11	19	OCS		122	82
47	USA 89	FACTOR Jordan	WEFER Matthew	38	5	5	2	12	6	15	31		114	83
48	ARG 11	SUCARI Francisco	GWOZDZ Fernando	30	30	9	8	11	20	1	9		117	87
49	NZL 20	LARDIES Francisco	STEVENSON Luke	18	11	16	20	16	15	9	4		109	89
50	FRA 18	FEYDIT Hugo	AGENEAU Charlie	29	10	3	13	7	14	18	20		114	94

470 Women

Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie have secured two previous 470 World Championship medals, a silver in 2010 and bronze in 2011, and today they completed their collection by winning the ultimate gold medal.

Achievements don’t get much better than being crowned Olympic Champions and World Champions within one year, as Jo Aleh acknowledged, “It is pretty good. We were actually just talking about it on the way in and we are almost more excited today I think than the Olympics.” Laughing she said, “I guess we’ve done five World Championships and we have stuffed up three of them in the past, and we really wanted to get it right. We have had a few medals, but never the gold.”

Last night was the eve of their Olympic anniversary glory, which Aleh said the pair were chuckling about. “Last night a year ago we were worrying about the medal race and equal points at the Olympics, and today it was a lot nicer having the points buffer. It was good fun and awesome to go out there and enjoy the medal race. This is the end of our season and the big one of the year and it was really important to get it right.”

An emotional day, as Powrie explained, “It always means a lot to us to win a medal. You put so much time and effort into these things, so to be able to pull it off is always a massive relief as you always put pressure on yourselves to do it. But at the same time you are stoked.”

“No we didn’t need to win it,” continued Powrie, referring to their medal race win. “We were just chugging away up the beat and down the run, as you do, and we found ourselves at the front at the bottom mark!”

In a last minute change to the leaderboard standings this morning, a penalty was awarded to Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar for not correctly signing in before racing yesterday, which knocked them back to third going into the medal race behind Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron of France.

The penalty seemed to fire up the Austrian pair, and an amazing upwind leg put them into the medal race lead, with China’s Xiaomei Xu/Chunyan Yu in second place, Australia’s 2008 Olympic gold medallist Elise Rechichi and crew Sarah Cook in third and the Kiwis in fourth place - and assured of the Gold Medal. By the downwind gate, Xu/Yu had taken the lead, with Vadlau/Ogar now trying to outpace Aleh/Powrie who were closing on in. But ultimately the race belonged to the Kiwis, with the Chinese finishing in second place and Austrians third.

“We are so happy to get the silver medal, it is just amazing. We were so motivated to get this medal for sure,” said Ogar. “It was good the men starting before, because we saw their race and saw what was happening on the course and the right side was totally favoured every upwind and we decided we wanted to go to the right side.”

Two Chinese teams qualified for the 470 Women medal race, and history was made for China when the 2012 Olympic team of Xiaoli Wang/Xufen Huang crossed the medal race finish line in 6th place and secured the bronze medal; the nation's first ever 470 World Championship medal.

Wang said, “We are very, very happy. Before we came here, we weren’t thinking about a medal, we just wanted to do our best and see our ability. Our results come from our hard work and also from our coaches Kevin Burnham and Nick Drougas.”

470 Women final results

Pos	Sail	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Tot	Net
1	NZL 75	ALEH Jo	POWRIE Polly	4	DPI	18	1	2	2	13	3	1	49	31
2	AUT 431	VADLAU Lara	OGAR Jolanta	11	4	21	5	3	6	DPI	6	3	72	51
3	CHN 1221	WANG Xiaoli	HUANG Xufeng	8	6	4	6	15	12	2	8	6	73	58
4	FRA 9	LECOINTRE Camille	GERON Mathilde	1	8	8	14	5	1	8	21	8	80	59
5	GBR 862	WEGUELIN Sophie	MC INTYRE Eilidh	5	18	14	16	1	7	4	7	4	79	61
6	CHN 616	XU Xiaomei	YU Chunyan	2	13	6	3	24	13	3	20	2	88	64
7	SLO 64	MRAK Tina	MACAROL Veronika	15	5	1	4	12	3	25	17	5	91	66
8	AUS 1	RECHICHI Elise	COOK Sarah	12	24	12	11	10	8	1	2	7	93	69
9	BRA 177	OLIVEIRA Fernanda	BARBACHAN Ana	9	2	17	OCS	9	9	6	13		93	65
10	JPN 1	YOSHIDA Ai	YOSHIOKA Miho	17	17	7	10	14	4	15	10		94	77
11	POL 11	SKRZYPULEC Agnieszka	WOJCIK Natalia	23	20	2	2	8	16	18	9		98	78
12	GBR 118	MILLS Hannah	CLARK Saskia	3	15	15	OCS	OCS	5	10	4		108	80
13	NED 216	KYRANAKOU Afrodite	VAN VEEN Anneloes	6	16	11	17	4	15	16	16		101	84
14	BRA 18	DECNOP Renata	SWAN Isabel	10	DPI	25	13	7	18	19	14		114	89
15	USA 1712	HAEGER Anne	PROVANCHA Briana	22	12	9	7	16	21	11	12		110	89
16	GER 72	BOCHMANN Annika	PANUSCHKA Elisabeth	7	9	13	9	18	DSQ	14	24		122	94
17	CRO 111	NINCEVIC Enia	ZUPAN Romana	13	14	24	8	17	11	23	11		121	97
18	FRA 22	BLANDIN Cassandre	MERY DE BELLEGARDE Charlotte	20	DPI	5	15	19	19	20	1		125	98
19	RUS 97	KIRILYUK Alisa	DMITRIEVA Liudmilla	14	10	19	OCS	11	22	21	5		130	102
20	SWE 348	ERICSON Lisa	GABRIELSSON Astrid	19	11	23	21	6	10	12	23		125	102
21	GBR 865	SEABRIGTH Amy	CARPENTER Anna	18	21	10	18	20	20	9	18		134	113
22	ITA 16	CAPUTO Roberta	PAOLILLO Giulia	27	7	16	12	OCS	23	24	22		159	131
23	CHN 1211	CAI Liping	GAO Yang	21	26	3	OCS	13	17	26	26		160	132
24	NED 6	BROEKHUIZEN Michelle	HUMEL Josca	16	23	26	20	23	14	17	19		158	132
25	USA 88	BOLGER Sydney	SHEVITZ Carly	25	19	22	19	21	24	7	25		162	137
26	AUS 21	GURR Jacqueline	CATT Amelia	24	25	20	22	22	25	22	15		175	150
27	UKR 93	KYSELOVA Anna	KRASKO Anastasia	26	DNF	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC		222	194
28	ESP 133	GALLEGO Marina	REYES Fatima	3	3	11	10	1	2	8	3		40	29
29	ISR 77	ZAMET Tsuf	BIRAN Lisa	16	5	8	1	2	1	1	22		53	31
30	GBR 849	FREEMAN Joanna	TOMSETT Katie	1	4	3	24	6	6	5	12		60	36
31	ESP 27	PUMARIEGA Angela	MATEO Carmen	12	2	2	6	4	10	OCS	4		67	40
32	EST 20	UMB Marjaliisa	UMB Elise	9	1	7	5	13	3	7	11		55	42
33	GRE 44	STEFANOUDAKI Despoina	KLONARIDOU Rafalina	6	11	1	3	DNF	5	9	10		71	44
34	FIN 141	LINDQVIST Rosa	TAKALA Annina	11	17	4	8	8	11	2	8		69	52
35	GER 24	BOHN Nadine	GOLTZER Karoline	2	13	6	2	14	14	3	18		72	54
36	CHI 2	HORWITZ Nadja	GUMUCIO Bregona	5	6	14	21	5	13	4	9		77	56
37	GRE 11	PAGIDA Dimitra	STRATIDGIOU Alina	10	10	15	7	15	12	6	7		82	67
38	ITA 52	KOMATAR Francesca	CARRARO Sveva	8	8	13	16	3	7	OCS	16		98	71
39	GBR 853	BURNET Anna	BENNETT-LLYOD Bryony	7	7	5	13	17	8	DPI	14		88	71
40	ISR 11	BAR-AM Noya	MAMAN Danielle	15	9	21	4	7	18	O+D	2		103	76
41	AUS 12	RYAN Sasha	RYAN Jaime	4	14	10	11	DNE	15	13	5		99	84
42	RUS 1	GUSEVA Anastasia	STOKOLESOVA Yana	20	22	12	17	10	20	15	1		116	94
43	POR 2	CARMO Sara	PINHEIRO DE MELO Matilde	18	19	9	15	19	4	10	21		115	94
44	ESP 6	BOU SERRA Alba	SUBIRA FELIP Julia	17	15	17	14	9	9	OCS	13		121	94
45	CZE 7	CHUDEJOVA Hana	MRZILKOVA Lenka	13	21	16	18	16	16	DPI	6		122	101
46	AUS 4	SHEPARD Lucy	PATERSON Aurora	19	12	18	9	12	17	16	20		123	103
47	GBR 838	LAVERY Jess	BRICKWOOD Megan	14	16	19	12	11	19	14	17		122	103
48	ESP 2	TORO Sofia	AMARO Pilar	21	20	20	19	18	21	17	19		155	134
49	GER 5000	JANSSEN Catrin	HILLER Jana	22	24	23	20	20	22	18	23		172	148
50	ESP 3	LLOPIZ DOMINGUEZ Lucia	LLOPIZ CASTEDO Laura	25	18	22	22	21	23	OCS	24		182	155
51	HUN 91	SIPOS Orsolya	SIPOS Zsofia	23	23	24	DNF	DNF	DNF	19	15		185	158
52	FRA 2565	SUQUART Morgane	JEAN Isabelle	26	25	25	23	22	DNF	20	25		193	166
53	FRA 2701	BROSSON Claire	SPANNAGEL Elodie	24	26	26	25	23	DNF	21	26		198	171