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Media release
2012 470 World Champs, Barcelona
The Internationale 470 Class Press Release: day 4
The day after the night before had given time for the reality of Olympic qualification to hit home. Benjamin Grez, who secured Chile’s place on the Olympic startline said, “I don’t feel it yet, it is still so recent. We certainly don’t feel that we are going to the Olympics yet and can’t quite believe it. It is a great moment. We are really happy and didn’t expect we would have such a good day as yesterday, as we were far away from the cut and we made a great day. This is really important for us. Until now there was just a Laser from Chile going to the Olympics and it would have been the third time he goes alone.”
For Grez’s crew, Diego Gonzalez, their Olympic qualification has an even more special significance, as the last time Chile qualifed and competed in the 470 back in the 1984 Olympics, his father Alberto Gonzalez helmed the team to 18th overall. According to Grez, the senior Olympian’s advice for the 2012 470 Worlds was to “sail quiet and the easiest way they could.”
470 Women
Same three women’s teams at the top of the leaderboard, just a shuffle round in positions. Despite posting their worse results so far – a 12,6 - up into first overall go Ingrid Petitjean/Nadedge Douroux (FRA).Their day was just more consistent than others, including their team mates Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron, who were knocked down from first overall to third. Up into second overall go Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie.
The seasoned Olympic campaigner Fernando Sesto of Argentina will compete at her fourth Olympics this summer, and her quality of performance so far in Barcelona reflects those years of experience, with up until today a scoreline of top ten finishes.
Speaking on the team’s ability and motivation to keep sailing at such a high level, Sesto said, “It is not easy to keep on training and focus on the events. Today was the most difficult day of the Championship so far. It was not stable, shifty and very wavy. It was very difficult and we lost many places and then we go up many places. It was not easy sailing. We made a top 10 and a top 20, so we are still in there. We are happy with our scoreline of all top 10 until the last race. We made so many mistakes in the last race today, but it was so difficult I think many of the fleet made mistakes.” Sesto and crew Consuelo Monsegur ended the day in 11th overall.
Defending World Champions Tara Pacheco/Berta Betanzos (ESP) were victims of the conditions today, only managing a 26, 12 and drop down the leaderboard from 9th to 12th. Now carrying their discard result of 26 from today’s race 7, they are really going to need to punch in some top placed results over the next four races of the final series, to guarantee their place in the top ten Medal Race.
The battle for Olympic qualification is shaping up and is a long, long way from being determined, as Austria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Poland and Russia fight for one of the final five nation places on offer at the 2012 470 World Championships.
China's three teams in th e gold fleet are a story in itself. Whichever team qualifies China to the Olympics, will be the selected team. All change in the overall order for these three, with Fen Huimin/Huang Lizhu now leading the charge in 18th overall.
Denmark’s Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer have consolidated their position even further as the highest unqualified nation on the leaderboard, moving up into 7th overall after a win in race 8. Sommer said, “It was so tricky today, so it is still just about keeping cool, keeping your head down and working hard. We have five races left. There were big waves today and not much wind, shifty and with pressure coming, so it was really difficult today. I am really happy that we found the rhythm and did well in the last race.”
For the other teams fighting for selection, there is a total shuffle in positions, with China now the next best placed unqualified nation behind Denmark, followed by Poland, Croatia, Austria and Russia.
470 Women - Top 10 Overall
Pos SailNo Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Pts
1 FRA 4 Ingrid Petitjean Nadege Douroux 1 5 4 5 2 1 12 6 24
2 NZL 75 Jo Aleh Polly Powrie 3 3 4 2 1 4 10 16 27
3 FRA 9 Camille Lecointre Mathilde Geron 1 8 3 5 2 1 8 14 28
4 NED 11 Lisa Westerhof Lobke Berkhout 6 1 1 1 7 6 18 10 32
5 GBR 118 Hannah Mills Saskia Clark BFD 2 7 7 1 3 13 2 35
6 JPN 1 Ai Kondo Wakako Tabata 4 1 5 2 17 4 7 18 40
7 DEN 143 Henriette Koch Lene Sommer 14 5 9 9 5 2 15 1 45
8 ITA 23 Giulia Conti Giovanna Micol 15 3 2 4 9 19 11 4 48
9 GER 21 Kathrin Kadelbach Friederike Belcher 2 7 6 4 12 2 16 19 49
10 ISR 311 Gil Cohen Vered Bouskila 7 2 1 1 10 5 24 OCS 50
470 Men
Australia’s run of six race wins was broken today by Lucas Calabrese/Juan de la Fuente (ARG) who won race 7 and Nicolas Charbonnier/Jeremie Mion (FRA) who took the gun in race 8
Unlikely that Mat Belcher/ Malcolm Page (AUS) are too concerned by this, as there 2,5 scoreline from races 7 and 8 still gives them an impressive 48 point margin over second placed Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela of Israel. Rounding out the top three are Pierre Leboucher/Vincent Garos (FRA).
Moving up to second overall today, from 6th yesterday, Kliger/Sela are pleased with their performance. Sela said, “We are pretty happy, except the black flag in the second race of qualification. We have sailed good in all the other races. Today was tough and it was a game of which team took the decision first, because if you tack too late you will just be after everyone. Everybody today just had to sail on what they felt."
The team are hoping that their fourth place finishes at each of last year’s pinnacle 470 Championships, the Worlds and Europeans, will be upgraded to a podium finish in Barcelona. Selan explained, “We were a bit unlucky last year, but even those Championships we felt we sailed good and were happy. After last year, we searched for what we could improve and everything is coming together now, which is good.”
With the final seven nation qualification places awarded yesterday (subject to ISAF ratification) to Canada, Chile, Ireland, Korea, Russia, Turkey and South Africa, most of the teams can now just focus on racing the World Championships.
But for Greece’s Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis and Panagiotis Kampouridis/Efstathios Papadopoulos the battle is getting really close, just 5 points between them, as they strive to be the team selected to represent Greece. Whichever team finishes ahead at the Worlds will go to the Olympics. Kampouridis/Papadopoulos had the better performance today, with a 12,4 and reduce the points advantage held by Mantis/Kagialis.
Kagialis commented, “Well done to the other team as they had a good race and did really well. It was a little confused with the weather, but it is onlya day. There is a lot of pressure, but you know the best will go do the Olympics. We will continue, there are another five races.”
Both Greek teams have every likelihood of making it through to Saturday’s top 10 medal race, so this head to head has a long way to go yet before either of their 2012 Olympic aspirations are sealed.
470 Men - Top 10 Overall
Pos SailNo Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Pts
1 AUS 11 Mathew Belcher Malcolm Page 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 5 8
2 ISR 7 Gideon Kliger Eran Sela 6 BFD 3 5 2 2 8 2 28
3 FRA 44 Pierre Leboucher Vincent Garos 1 3 9 3 3 7 13 3 29
4 CRO 83 Sime Fantela Igor Marenic 5 1 4 1 7 4 11 9 31
5 FIN 7 Joonas Lindgren Niklas Lindgren 3 3 1 4 1 10 OCS 11 33
6 ARG 7 Lucas Calabrese Juan de la Fuente 4 6 2 12 2 7 1 14 34
7 GRE 1 Panagiotis Mantis Pavlos Kagialis 2 2 6 4 9 4 10 23 37
8 POR 1 Alvaro Marinho Miguel Nunes 5 2 2 1 12 1 18 16 39
9 ESP 9 Onán Barreiros Aarón Sarmiento 8 3 5 2 10 9 7 6 40
10 JPN 4 Ryunosuke Harada Yugo Yoshida 7 4 4 6 4 7 9 8 40
The Internationale 470 Class Press Release: day 3
Race day 3 at the 2012 470 World Championships was a tense and enthralling day. Seven nations secured their right to be at the 2012 Olympic Games in the 470 Men, whilst six nations in the 470 Women continue to fight their way for the remaining five nation places.
Another blue sky day in Barcelona, with all fleets completing two more races and determining the teams proceeding through to the 470 Men gold, silver and bronze fleets and the 470 Women gold and silver fleets. The breeze was not quite as strong as forecast, around 10 knots and shifty.
470 Women
After 6 races of qualification series, the gold and silver fleet splits are now determined, with 27 boats allocated to each fleet for the next stage of the 2012 470 World Championship.
Coming ashore after race 6, the air was tense as teams waited to find out who had qualified through to the gold fleet and place themselves one step closer towards their World Championship aims and Olympic qualification. The story has unfolded in the most dramatic way possible.
With only five Olympic qualification places available at the 2012 470 Worlds, six unqualified nations have made it through to the gold fleet and will now battle for the slots – so this adventure continues. There are seven more races of the final series to go and this story is a long way from over yet … as teams from Austria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Poland and Russia go head to head.
If Croatia’s Enia Nincevic/Romana Zupan achieve their goal, it will make the first time Croatia has qualified to the women’s two-person dinghy event. The pair were really disappointed not to secure Olympic qualification in Perth. “It has been a very emotional day. We are feeling great and we hope that we will continue sailing like this. We worked really hard for this, and I think that we managed to correct things that were not good before and we are not afraid of anything that might come our way. We are now second among the nations that are trying to qualify for the Olympics and we hope that the ones behind us will remain there,” Zupan said and laughed.
By a two point margin, Lara Vadlau/Eva-Maria Schimak are the last of the six teams to make it through to the gold fleet. Alongside her gold medal at last year’s ISAF Youth Worlds, Vadlau also won gold in the one-person dinghy event at the inaugural Olympic Youth Games in 2010. A relieved Vadlau said, “The first moment when we came ashore we were down as we thought it was over, but then I saw my father dancing and I realised that we were still in and have a chance. I hope we can stay in this game as we have sailed well over the last three days. ”
Denmark’s Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer have accelerated their chance of Olympic qualification and are the top placed nation within the gold fleet after a solid 5,2 scoreline today. Koch said, “We are feeling really good. It has been a tough day, but we remain focused on one race at a time.” Sommer added, “I think it is nice to have a good race, we are sailing well and feel in control.”
At the front of the 470 Women leaderboard are Camile Lecointre/Matilde Geron on 12 points, with team mates Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux one point behind in second. Despite last night's bicycle injury, birthday girl Jo Aleh of New Zealand and crew Olivia Powrie still managed to notch up a race win and fourth place to end the qualification series in third overall. “I think it all merges together a bit,” Aleh laughed, referring to her injury, birthday and race win. “I gave myself an early birthday present last night by doing a face plant flip off my bike and decided to grate up my face on the concrete. I spent six hours at Barcelona hospital, which was hard after such a big day on the water yesterday. So yes today, I thought we had to win a race because it was my birthday. It was tricky out there. The wind didn’t do what anyone thought it was going to do and shifted around a lot.”
Twenty one nations are represented in the twenty-seven teams in the gold fleet, clear evidence of the broad talent pool.
470 Women - Top 10 Overall after 6 Races
Pos Sailno Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Pts
1 FRA 9 CAMILE LECOINTRE/MATILDE GERON 1 -8 3 5 2 1 12,0
2 FRA 4 INGRID PETITJEAN/NADEGE DOUROUX 1 -5 4 5 2 1 13,0
3 NZL 75 JO ALEH/POLLY POWRIE 3 3 -4 2 1 4 13,0
4 NED 11 LISA WESTERHOF/LOBKE BERKHOUT 6 1 1 1 -7 6 15,0
5 ISR 311 GIL COHEN/VERED BOUSKILA 7 2 1 1 -10 5 16,0
6 JPN 1 AI KONDO/WAKAKO TABATA 4 1 5 2 -17 4 16,0
7 GBR 118 HANNAH MILLS/SASKIA CLARK (bfd) 2 7 7 1 3 20,0
8 GER 21 KATHRIN KADELBACH/FRIEDERIKE BURNET 2 7 6 4 -12 2 21,0
9 ESP 696 TARA PACHECO/BERTA BETANZOS 9 4 2 -15 6 6 27,0
10 DEN 143 HENRIETTE KOCH/LENE SOMMER -14 5 9 9 5 2 30,0