Four more World Champs

As Giles Scott confirms his Finn gold at the end of the ISAF Sailing Worlds

Four more world champions were crowned at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships as racing wrapped up in the Spanish City on a day blessed with glorious sunshine.

After a short racing delay in Santander a variable 6-11 knot breeze blew across the Duna race course with the 49erFX, 49er, Finn and Nacra 17 Medal Races entertaining a packed grandstand.

2,500 to 3,000 fans watched the action unfold as Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) took the 49erFX title in a dramatic Medal Race. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) had 49er gold sealed ahead of the final day and stylishly showed what they're all about by taking the bullet.

Giles Scott (GBR) wrapped up Finn gold with a solid race whilst Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) walked away convincing winners in the Nacra 17, finishing 38 points clear of their rivals.

49erFX

In the top billing match up of the day, it was who beats who in the women's skiff class.

Recent European Champions, Ida Nielsen & Marie Olsen (DEN) were just ahead of Martine Grael & Kahena Kunze (BRA). The day got off to a slow start as the breeze built and then the teams were called to the race area. "My heart was thumping in the pre-start," said Martine Grael when asked about the significance of the moment.

It was an up and down race in about 6-8 knots of wind. The two leaders covered each other closely, and in the end the Brazilians emerged as world champions. They celebrated emphatically with big smiles, hugs, and some swimming for the crowd. This is their first world championship though they have been contenders at all of the major regattas this year.

It was disappointment for the Danes, who have been riding a high since July when they won both the Junior World Championship and the European Championship back to back. It is a tremendously competitive fleet, however, and it is unlikely we will see any team dominate for too long.

In third place were Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich (ITA) who were guaranteed their position so used the race to enjoy themselves. Conti has been sailing recently with a male team mate while Francesca was out injured, and was relieved to have her normal crew back and to make it on the podium.

Team GBR's Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth consolidated their seventh place overall.

“I’d sum it up as a week of learning,” said Ainsworth. “We feel like we’ve got more potential – but there’s a long way to go with two years now until the Games so the fact that we’re in the top ten and often in a place where we can medal just means that we need to learn how to close out the regatta.”

The 25-year-old continued: “It seems to be when the boat handling and the fleet get quite close together that we don’t quite get the best from our performance. That’s definitely something that we have to go away and work on. It is a bit disappointing, but it’s a whole lot better than last year’s Worlds where we didn’t even make the gold fleet!"

49er

The Medal Race was just like the regatta, dominated by New Zealand. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) had an insurmountable lead going into the final. They had a middling first beat, but then made their move with a gybeset on the first run. They got into the lead by the bottom marks and never looked back, taking a huge win in the Medal Race to cap their huge win in the regatta. The duo are winning regattas and races by margins never seen before in the 49er, and look unstoppable. Time will tell whether they can hold this kind of form all the way through to Rio.

The real fight in the Medal Race was for the silver medal in the battle of Olympic gold medallists. Jonas Warrer, the Beijing 2008 Gold medalist with Anders Thomsen (DEN) were only two points off the London 2012 Gold medallists, Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS).

Outteridge and Jensen got off to a good start and were third around the first top mark while the Danes were back in eighth. However, there were position changes on every leg of the race, and on the final upwind the Danes got past the Aussies to secure their silver medal, leaving the Aussies to settle for Bronze.

The crowds were so big that it was standing room only, and they reserved their biggest cheers for the Paz brothers from Spain, who get their highest ever worlds finish with a 10th place.

Team GBR's John Pink and Stuart Bithell finished third to improve their overall finishing position to sixth, marking a solid first season together – but Bithell says they’re both hungry for more.

“We’re competitive folk – we had a little bit to gain today and quite a bit to lose so we went out and attacked the race and we’re happy to have come away with the best outcome we could have today,” the Olympic 470 class silver medallist explained. “It’s our first World Championship together – it’s my first 49er World Championship ever – so coming away sixth you can’t be too disappointed, but we had our eyes on medals. Between us we had a lot of experience. We came here to get a medal and we haven’t got one, so we’re a little bit disappointed.”

Finn

Giles Scott (GBR) made sure of the Finn World title, for the Finn Gold Cup, after leading early on in the race and finally crossing in fourth. All he had to do was finish cleanly, but wanted to make a good race of it as well as he explained, "I just went out and sailed my own race and kind of forgot what was going on with the other guys. You can try and get out of their way but I was racing as much as they were. I wanted to go out on a high, and I managed to almost do that.

"It's a been a great season for me and I can't really think of a better way to round it off that with the world title. It's been a great event and I am really pleased with the way I have sailed, and there's always a lot to learn from it, but I'm over the moon about it.”

On his dominance throughout the event, "I never really let myself think like that. But the event has gone really well. I have sailed well from day one and managed to keep it going through the regatta.”

The Medal Race was won by Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO), who took the lead on the first downwind and held it to the finish. Already in second overall, this win gave him the silver medal by a comfortable margin.

He said, "The week has been great for me, a really excellent performance. Today I knew I had to be relaxed and keep calm and I did exactly that and it put me right into the lead. Then I had really clear lanes through the race and really good moments. I sailed pretty consistently today, as I did all week, and it it turned out to be a winning combination for me.

"It's an important event for me because after a couple of years of some general setbacks, I really made a great performance here, with all my team behind me. This really makes me happy and all of this proves that we are working in the right way and the progress is just going forwards and I hope in Rio it is going to be even better.”

Ed Wright (GBR) went into the Medal Race in fourth, just one point behind Jonathan Lobert (FRA). Initially Lobert had the upper hand, but that all changed on the second lap when Wright found better pressure on the left and moved up to third.

He said, "On the second beat I got a gust on the left hand side and moved up to third and held that all the way. It was a nail biting race and I really enjoyed sailing in it. It means a lot to me to get a medal at the worlds and I needed this medal, so really happy with that.”

"It's been a hard week after I had a OCS early on and I've been struggling a bit with that. But it was all to play for today and it was a real fun race to be part of. I now just need to wind it up a bit more and try to catch Giles.”

Josh Junior (NZL) also sailed a great race to finish second, and moved up to fifth overall.

Nacra 17

French team Billy Besson & Marie Riou were already assured of the first place before the start of the Medal Race. But from second to sixth there were a lot of possible changes. And Argentine team Santiago Lange & Cecilla Carranza Saroli raised from 5th to 2nd overall position with Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (AUS) taking silver.

After a short postponement the sea breeze came up and stayed during the afternoon, which made it possible to start at 16:10. With thousands of sailing fans on the spectator Dune and a lot of spectator boats on the water it was an amazing finale to the ISAF Worlds.

Besson and Riou had sealed the deal before the Medal Race and enjoyed themselves on the race course taking a third which ensured the celebrations commenced.

Meanwhile the fight went on around them with plenty of permeatations.

After the start, racing was very close between Argentine team Lange & Carranza Saroli and the Swiss team Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger. At the first upwind mark Buhler and Brugger were leading the Argentines. But at the first downwind gate Lange took over to lead directly followed by the Swiss. Lange was sailing very strong but at the end of the third lap just before the finish the Swiss team were able to pass him and take first but Lange and Saroli still advanced up the leader board to take silver.

Lange was delighted after racing, "For us it is really a very special day. It was difficult sailing in the Medal Race in the harbour area. Tricky race and you have to stay very sharp all time. Only in the last minutes we lost some distance and Matias passed us. We are very happy with this result. Our next goal will be the Olympics. Still a long way to go, but with this result we are very motivated to reach our dream.”

Meanwhile the Swiss were happy with a Medal Race victory and sixth overall, "In Rio we won the Medal Race. This week in Santander we didn't sailed our best races. Before starting this Medal Race we decided to go for the best and take some risks. We didn't have anything to lose and wanted to try to show it was no coincidence we won in Rio. This race we sailed very well and are super happy we have won the medal race. This will give us a very good start for our new season.”

Australian team Waterhouse & Darmanin kept their third position in the overall result with a fifth in the Medal Race.

Britain’s Pippa Wilson-John Gimson, who went into the day in fourth, and Lucy Macgregor-Andy Walsh were both in with a chance of gaining the podium, but a first lap crash put an end to Wilson and Gimson’s medal hopes.

Wilson explained: “We had a good start in middle of the fleet going upwind. We were on the starboard layline about fifth and a boat tried to cross us and couldn’t, so hit us basically and that meant we were going backwards on the layline while everyone else sailed around us so we ended up last in the race. It cost us quite a lot, so it’s painful – but that’s sport isn’t it?”

“We had a really good early part of the event – the bigger fleet racing went well for us,” reflected the 2008 Olympic champion, who ended the event in eighth.

“We gave ourselves a bit too much to do today anyway and on the last two days we made some mistakes that we can definitely improve. It’s about trying to be better at the end of the day – lots to work on."

Lucy Macgregor and Andy Walsh finished their medal race in sixth to end their first World Championship together in seventh place.

British performance

Giles Scott's medal was the only gold for the British Sailing Team, with bronze medals also going to Scott’s Finn class stablemate Ed Wright in a nail-biting final day medal race, as well as 470 Women’s pairing Hannah Mills-Saskia Clark and Nick Thompson in the Laser to hit the British medal target of four in Santander.

The British team also secured country qualification in each of the ten events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at this first opportunity.

“It’s been an interesting event and fairly challenging from a racing perspective over the last ten days or so,” said RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park as the Championships drew to a close.

“However, it’s been pleasing to have managed to qualify the country for the Olympic Games at the first opportunity in each of the ten events, and to come away with four medals which was in line with our target coming here.

“That said, we were disappointed not to win a medal in the Nacra, the 470 Men and arguably we could have won one in the 49erFX as well halfway through the week.”

Park continued: “The event’s definitely highlighted some areas that need some work over the winter time and a number of sailors will be going home disappointed, particularly bearing in mind the progress we made in Rio Test Event earlier in the year and the performances that we had there.

“The competition at this event yet again provides further evidence, if any was needed, of the increasing level of competition internationally and the small differences between each of the positions. There were some fantastic individual performances from various countries in certain events, but outside of those the competition for the remaining positions is really tight.

“We’ve had a good showing across the classes and we’ve been in the running for medals in nine out of the ten classes, but ultimately it’s about winning medals and our sailors will be disappointed that we’ve not won more and we’ve let some opportunities slip away in Santander.”