Junior 470 World Championships - Day Six
'Photo: Event website www.470.sails.pl/jwc2008/- 470 Junior World Championship'
The shifty wind conditions didn't make it easy for the Race Management today to get the last medal race qualifying races started at the Junior 470 World Championships for Men/Mixed and Women crews. Both events have reached their sixth day, with twelve races completed. Steven LEFEVRE and Steven KROL (NED) take back the lead and Hannah MILLS and Katrina HUGHES (GBR) share last day's honours, but hold the lead.
Men's 470
After hours of waiting for the wind to become stable, the sailors were given the chance to make their last attempts to make it to the medal race, or improve their situation for the chance for medals. It became a nervous situation. After some general recalls, eleven crews suffered from the 'Black Flag' rule. However, no title contenders were among them.
After today's first race, Steven LEFEVRE and Steven KROL (NED) see their chances for the title weakening when Lior LAVIE and Yam AMIR (ISR) take 1st place and leave them in 6th. In race twelve however, both leaders fall into a wind hole, see the fleet passing by, and the Dutch profit of a more consistent results serie.
' The wind totally dropped in the middle of the course and we saw the whole fleet passing by. Fortunately the Israeli's and Swedish had the same problem. We knew that we could afford another really bad result, and they couldn't. We decided to point our strategy to put ourselves in front of them and stay out of trouble.' LEFEVRE said
Steven LEFEVRE and Steven KROL joined, and started sailing 470's early 2007 after a successful one person Laser dinghy period. LEFEVRE won silver at the 2006 Laser Radial Worlds, gold at the 2006 Radial Europeans, and silver in the Laser standard at the 2006 Qingdao Test Event. Also KROL looks back on a successful Laser Radial period with a bronze medal in the 2007 Laser Radial Worlds as a highlight.
'We are stronger downwind than upwind, maybe we have a feel for it from sailing Lasers. It's also something between the ears. When we round the upper mark, we head downwind and think: Come on, let's take them all!
We are fast in strong winds, we proved that more often and we are very happy that we make such good results in this light wind event. We have gained a lot of experience at the Semaine Olympique in Hy?res and at the 470 Europeans this year, which were light wind events as well. ' LEFEVRE said.
For the Dutch, it will not be easy to defend their golden position and finish the job. Luca DUBBINI and Roberto DUBBINI (ITA) currently take a second overall position with a 6 points difference. Lior LAVIE and Yam AMIR (ISR) take third overall with 9 points difference on the leader. With the double points scoring in tomorrow's medal race in mind, the Dutch cannot afford to have the Italians lead over them with more than one boat in between, the Israeli's with three.
The most exciting opening would be if Israel and Italy would both choose to take a different side of the course after the starting signal. The shifty conditions and changing pressure areas on the course may overrule all expectations, except for one; it will be a run for Gold, and go as fast as you can.
Women's 470
Hannah MILLS and Katrina HUGHES (GBR) shared the honours of today's races with Tara PACHECO and Berta BETANZOS (ESP), both scoring a 2nd and 1st place.
The girls from Great Britain created a convenient position to go into tomorrow's medal race. With an 8 points lead on Tara PACHECO and Berta BETANZOS (ESP), they may take or follow the Spanish anywhere as long as they do not allow more than two boats in between in case the Spanish lead. For the Spanish ladies, this is a difficult situation while Sweden's Lisa ERICSON and Astrid GABRIELSSON could profit of such a situation where the GBR girls try to keep PACHECO and BETANZOS in their grip, and walk away with the silver medal.
Only Great Britain and Spain have a chance for the Gold medal.
Medal races to take place tomorrow
The medal race in the Men/Mixed and Women's events will take place tomorrow afternoon. If the wind conditions allow it, racing will take place in sight of the public.
TOP 5 470 MEN / MIXED
2 NED 77 Steven LEFEVRE, Steven KROL 56
3 ITA 4 Luca DUBBINI, Roberto DUBBINI 62
1 ISR 9 Lior LAVIE, Yam AMIR 65
4 SWE 333 Victor BERGSTROM, Marcus DACKHAMMAR 79
5 FRA 27 Sofian BOUVET, Jeremie MION 83
16 AUS Sam Kivell and Max Taylor
TOP 5 470 WOMEN
1 GBR 835 Hannah MILLS, Katrina HUGHES 18
2 ESP 696 Tara PACHECO, Berta BETAZOS 26
3 SWE 33 Lisa ERICSON, Astrid, GABRIELSSON 37
4 GER 4983 Annika BOCHMAN, Anika LORENZ 63
5 GER 51 Tina LUTZ, Susann BEUCKE 63
7 AUS Stacey Omay and Chelsea Hall
For more information and full results, please visit the event web site: www.470.sails.pl/jwc2008/
or the web site of the Intl. 470 Class Association: www.470.org/champ08/jwc/
by Event media 
perth, WA
