470 World Championships Day 3: 7 more sailors heading for the Olympic Games
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.
Lara Vadlau/Eva-Maria Schimak (AUT) © Thom Touw
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.
Lara Vadlau/Eva-Maria Schimak (AUT) © Thom Touw
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.”
Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer (DEN) © Thom Touw
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.
Xu Xiaomei/Yu Chunyai (CHN) © Thom Touw