Fierce competition at Open 470 Class European Championships

1:56 AM Thu 11 Jun 2009 GMT

'470 Europeans - Belcher and Page (AUS11)' International 470 Class Association&copy

Today should have been the last day of the qualifying series at the Open 470 Class European Championships for Men/Mixed and Women, but the weather conditions kept having an effect on the schedule of both events. Both men's groups completed one race today, as did the women's fleet.

Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) retain their overall lead but give away their 'discard reserve' with a 22nd place in today's only race. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) had a bad start, climbed back, and secured their lead with fifth position at the finish.

Although wind conditions were light, competition was fierce. Eight nations from three continents are represented in the current men's 470 top 10. Nine nations from the same number of continents are represented in the women's 470 top 10.

Men's 470

Although the men from Croatia still lead the men's 470, Harada Ryunosuko and Yoshida Yugo from Japan are doing well. Their record in international 470 sailing goes back to the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships where they were lucky to compete in the Gold fleet. At the Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hy?res this year, they have their first success in a major event and finished in fifth position overall. Also at the Delta Lloyd Regatta they make it to the medal race. Today, they won race 5 in their group and secured their promising second overall position.

Gabrio Zandona and Eduardo Mancinelli (ITA) win today's race in the other group and climb to a 7th overall position.

Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page are moving up slowly, but strongly. The new Australian team formed by the two top performers and coached by Victor Kovalenko, scored a second place in today's race. It is expected that they will increase the pressure in the coming days.

Malcolm Page won the Open 470 Europeans last year with his former helm Nathan Wilmot. Page and Wilmot had the highlight in their sailing careers by
winning the gold medal in Qingdao 2008.

Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic have been true heroes in the Junior 470 scene by winning the 470 Junior Worlds in 2005 and 2007. Exciting battles have taken place with other talented Juniors, like Levin Eyal and Yam Amir (ISR), who were the strongest in 2006. Croatia left the Junior Worlds' venue Travemuende with the silver medal. The young talents won the medal race at the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships (ending sixth overall), and made their Olympic debut in Qingdao 2008, where they finished in ninth position.

'The conditions are extremely difficult. The last two days we were lucky with our decisions. Today we decided to sail on the right side of the course, but it turned out to be the wrong side. We now have to stay calm and concentrated. When we start sailing the in the gold fleet, it's more difficult to have good results. Everybody makes mistakes and all teams in the top ten are still able to win the championship. We will see, but we still are full of hope!' Sime Fantela said.

470 Europeans - start line - International 470 Class Association&copy

Women's 470

Margriet Fokkema and Marieke Jongens from The Netherlands scored the bullet in today's only race, successfully finalizing a close battle with Qingdao 2008 Yngling class silver medalists Mandy Mulder and Merel Witteveen, also from the Netherlands. Fokkema and Jongens seem to feel good in light winds. The Dutch ladies, inspired by Olympic dreams at an early age, picked up the silver medal this year at the light wind Semaine Olympique Francaise ISAF World Cup event. They move up to ninth position overall.

Still it's Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) and Ai Kondo and Wakoko Tabata (JPN) who make the game in this Open 470 Women's event. The rivals scored a reasonable fifth and an average 14th place respectively, which didn't manage to shake Jo Aleh amd Olivia Powrie (NZL), and Anthi Economou and Olga Tsigaridi (GRE) off their tails.

Nevertheless, it could have been worse for the Italian women. Conti and Micol made a bad start in the race, but recovered perfectly.

'On this lake you can never be sure about your final rank, before you here the signal of the finishing boat. The wind is very puffy and shifty. If you miss a shift, you can lose up to 20 places. This Championship is about who makes less mistakes than the others. We were the team so far with the least wrong decisions. We have tried to use our lake experience from Lake Garda, and so far it worked' Giulia Conti said.

From Qualifiers into the Final series

Racing continues tomorrow to finalize the qualifiers; it should have been completed today. The 470 men will go out on the water, if possible, to have one race, and get back ashore to have results calculated and have protests handled, if any. If the wind conditions allow racing, the men's fleet will go out again to start the final series, separated into a gold and silver fleet.

For the Open 470 European Women's event, it will probably be easier as no calculations (as to fleets) have to made, and the same group of 39 crews will continue from the qualifiers into the final series.