Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia Mapfre - Medal race to Wright

9:21 PM Fri 2 Apr 2010 GMT

'Wright and Mills, Finns - Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mapfre' Nico Martinez &copy

Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia Mapfre day 6 and after a thrilling medal race, Skandia Team GBR's Ed Wright (GBR) took out the medal race in Palma for Finns, the first European leg of the 2009-2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) took the silver and Jonathan Lobert (FRA) the bronze. The medal race itself was won by Zach Railey (USA) who led from start to finish in the shifty conditions.

Typically of the wind this week just not playing the game, the medal race day brought flat calm conditions and an early postponement for all classes. The Finn medal race was supposed to start at 11.00 but it wasn't until 12.40 that the fleet finally got away in just 7 knots of breeze.

At the first windward mark Zach Railey (USA) was leading from Andrew Mills (GBR) and Daniel Birgmark (SWE). Regatta leader Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) rounded in fourth, with his main challengers Jonathan Lobert (FRA) in fifth and Ed Wright (GBR) in sixth. Railey held his lead on the first downwind from Mills, while Kljakovic Gaspic and Wright moved up into third and fourth.

The second windward leg proved crucial. Though Railey held onto his lead, everyone behind him changed positions. Birgmark recovered to second while Thomas Le Breton (FRA) climbed from eighth to third. More importantly Wright
passed Kljakovic Gaspic. Lobert, who was in third place overall going into the medal race, looked in trouble as he faded to eighth while early regatta leader Rafa Trujillo (ESP) was way back in ninth.

The final exciting downwind leg to the finish brought only two significant changes. Wright managed to slide past team mate Mills to put that crucial one boat between himself and Kljakovic Gaspic to take the regatta win by just one point. The Croatian finished sixth in the race to take the silver while Lobert moved up one place to seventh, which was just enough to hang onto the bronze from his team mate Le Breton who took third in the race to finish fourth overall, just one point behind Lobert.

Once again the Skandia Team GBR sailors produced an impressive performance with three sailors in the medal race and the fourth one finishing 11th. Coach Matt Howard, said of Wright, 'He's not had the best week this week, but I think that's the sign of a top performer, that even when he's not quite hitting the groove he's still up there.'

Ed Wright had not even been in the top four all week until the penultimate day but pulled out the results when it mattered. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic also looked in trouble mid-series but recovered to lead the fleet into the medal race, but was perhaps a little bit unlucky to lose the series by just one point. Third placed Jonathan Lobert is showing his potential in the best possible way, improving in each regatta and his first major regatta podium place.

Wright's win also gives him a commanding lead in the ISAF Sailing World Cup series after his previous win at the Rolex Miami OCR. Next stop for the ISAF Sailing World Cup is Hyeres where they will do it all over again.

Overall results

POS	VELA	SPONSOR	TRIPULACI?N	CLUB	NET Points	TOTAL Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	MR
1	GBR - 11	Edward Wright	Ed WRIGHT	RYA	45	83
8	10	12	1	1	38	8
2	CRO - 524	T-Mobile	Ivan KLJAKOVIC GASPIC	SC ZENTA Split	46	64	10	1	9	5	7	2	18	12
3	FRA - 112	Equipe de France militaire de	Jonathan LOBERT	sno nantes	53	74	11	15	1	4	4	4	21	14
4	FRA - 115	Equipe de France Militaire	Le BRETON	SR BREST	54	75	9	4	5	21	8	6	16	6
5	ESP - 100	Puerto Alcaidesa/Andalucia	Rafael TRUJILLO	r.c.n.la linea	59	83	2	3	3	8	13	12	24	18
6	SWE - 11	SKF	Daniel BIRGMARK	GKSS	61	86	16	25	4	10	3	15	9	4
7	GBR - 85	-	Andrew MILLS	Queen Mary	69	93	7	24	8	3	2	16	23	10
8	GBR - 41	Skandia	Giles SCOTT	WPNSA	70	97	3	27	11	15	5	3	17	16
9	USA - 4	-	Zach RAILEY	stfyc	72	126	BFD	19	17	2	11	7	14	2
10	SLO - 5	-	Gasper VINCENT	JD FINN Slovenije	85	139	1	11	DNC	23	14	9	5	DNF
11	GBR - 88	Teva	Mark ANDREWS	Largs S C	72	116	4	14	20	6	9	19	44
12	NOR - 1	Jeepm	Peer MOBERG	KNS	73	97	8	2	13	24	22	22	6
13	EST - 2	S4G/A. le Coq/EOK	Deniss KARPAK	S4G Karpak Sailing Team	74	100	12	6	18	18	15	5	26
14	ESP - 7	muski	Alejandro MUSCAT DIAZ	CN Hospitalet Vandellos	74	92	14	17	6	14	16	18	7
15	POL - 7	-	Rafa SZUKIEL	Polish Yachting Association	74	102	6	12	12	9	24	11	28
16	ITA - 146	fantastica	Paoletti MICHELE	y.c.t	84	112	21	28	2	20	28	10	3
17	ITA - 117	-	Giorgio POGGI	SVGDF	90	144	34	OCS	7	1	10	30	8
18	RUS - 9	-	Skornyakov EDUARD	Moscow Sailing Skhool	94	123	15	16	19	17	25	29	2
19	CZE - 1	DEVOTI SAILING	Michael MAIER	YCR ROUDNICE N-L	97	151	17	9	15	13	19	24	DNF
20	POL - 17	-	Piotr KULA	BTZ Brugmann Biskupiek	105	134	18	10	26	11	23	17	29
21	FIN - 218	Sonera	Tapio NIRKKO	EPS	109	142	13	13	25	27	6	33	25
22	GRE - 77	-	Ioannis MITAKIS	P.Y.C	113	146	33	23	30	7	12	26	15
23	ITA - 101	-	Riccardo CORDOVANI	Fraglia vela Riva	114	141	25	20	27	16	27	13	13
24	SWE - 6	-	Bj?rn ALLANSSON	GKSS	121	153	19	32	22	19	17	14	30
25	GER - 771	Glashaeger	Jan KURFELD	Yachtclub Wismar 1961	126	180	28	18	23	28	21	8	BFD
26	CAN - 5	-	Greg DOUGLAS	RCYC	135	169	20	29	21	31	30	34	4
27	RUS - 1	-	Alexey SELIVANOV	Krasnodar	151	193	27	31	38	26	42	28	1
28	NZL - 10	-	Matt COUTTS	MBSC	151	193	22	42	24	29	20	21	35
29	USA - 619	-	Caleb PAINE	Southwestern Yacht Club	152	190	38	5	34	38	38	27	10
30	NED - 83	RNLNAVY	Timo HAGOORT	HWH	154	195	36	41	33	25	18	23	19
31	EST - 7	-	Harles LIIV	Kalev PSK	163	217	23	30	32	22	29	DNC	27
32	POR - 5	SYBASE	Frederico MELO	Naval de Cascais	164	207	26	43	31	39	26	31	11
33	USA - 40	-	Luke LAWERENCE	usscmc	167	221	32	26	28	30	31	20	BFD
34	SWE - 33	-	Max SALMINEN	KSSS	174	221	31	34	16	35	33	25	47
35	ESP - 10	MEJILLON DE GALICIA	Ero PONS PENIN	LICEO CASINO VILAGARCIA	176	222	29	21	46	33	37	36	20
36	GER - 712	-	Christoph FROH	SYC	201	241	37	22	40	34	36	38	34
37	ESP - 310	TOP ALACANT	Alejandro ARANZUEQUE	CLUB NAUTICO SANTA POLA	202	248	30	36	45	40	46	39	12
38	IND - 11	-	Nachhatar JOHAL	AYN. MUMBAI	203	240	35	33	35	37	32	37	31
39	AUT - 3	KOSTI / ITSDONE	Raudaschl FLORIAN	UYC Wolfgangsee	207	261	24	7	14	DNF	DNF	DNC	DNC
40	ITA - 981	-	Enrico VOLTOLINI	C.N.Livorno	208	251	39	38	29	43	34	35	33
41	NED - 844	Team Heiner	Gert VAN DER HEIJDEN	DSWZ Broach	210	251	41	39	36	32	35	32	36
42	CZE - 81	-	Tomas HRNCAL	YC Pardubice	241	295	43	46	DNC	36	39	40	37
43	POL - 12	-	Milosz WOJEWSKI	Spojnia Warszawa	242	286	40	35	44	42	40	43	42
44	FRA - 99	Transmer Assurances	Marc ALLAIN DES BEAUVAIS	SNO Nantes	248	296	42	40	41	48	43	41	41
45	GER - 5	-	Moessnang JOERG	DTYC	250	299	45	49	47	46	45	45	22
46	CZE - 21	-	Jan CAJCIK	Yach Club Pardubice	250	296	46	37	43	45	44	42	39
47	IRL - 4	-	Ross HAMILTON	Royal Irish YC	255	302	44	47	37	41	41	46	46
48	CZE - 11	MM SAILING/MIKE	Patrik DEUTSCHER	YCR ROUDNICE N/L	264	311	47	44	42	47	47	44	40
49	GER - 62	Heimatliebe	Barthel UWE	Segler-Club D?mmer e.V.	284	333	48	45	49	49	49	48	45
50	GER - 75	Mitscherlich	Christian RUPP	MYC	286	337	50	50	48	51	48	47	43
51	ESP - 21	-	Mauricio LUQUE DIAZ	club nautico torre del mar	287	341	49	48	DNC	DNC	DNC	50	32
52	GER - 127	Stihl/ Marinepool/ Ims/ BYC cl	Julian MASSLER	Ycra	299	353	DNC	DNC	39	44	DNC	BFD	DNC
53	GER - 136	-	Christian TEICHMANN	DTYC	307	361	DNC	DNC	50	50	50	49	DNC