Medal Race day of the 470 European Championship in Vilamoura, Portugal.
First up were the Mixed Fleet, in what is the first European mixed title for the 470 Class following the World Sailing decision to only have a Mixed crew event in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In order to justify that decision the class had to add mixed title World and European championships to their programme.
Thus we had the strange situation of the Men and Women’s fleets being smaller than the Mixed, but containing 34 out of the 40 Tokyo Olympic teams.
In the Mixed Fleet, Nitai Hasson and Saar Tami of Israel claimed the first Mixed European Title.
With Germany’s Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra silver and Vita Heathcote and Ryan Orr of Britain taking the bronze.
Medal race winners the Greek team of Nikolaos Brikakis and Rafailina Klonaridou.
In the Womens Fleet, Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre did all they could to finish on a high . . . turning a fourth place into silver with a third place finish in the medal race.
Mills said that their one goal is to deliver in Tokyo this summer. “Ultimately Tokyo is Tokyo and we will go there to deliver our best performance. We know we’re not at our potential best yet, we still have work to do.”
Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retoraz of France continued their dominance with a win in the medal race for a comfortable European Title victory, and set a marker for the Tokyo Games.
The Swiss pair Linda Fahrni and Maja Siegenthaler held onto third place to claim bronze.
In the Men’s event, Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox of New Zealand took the Open Title, while Kevin Peponnet and Jeremie Mion of France claimed the Europe Title.
Spain’s Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez Kevin PEPONNET and Jeremie MION took Europe silver and Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstom of Sweden the Europe bronze.
No medals for Britain in this one, but Martin Wrigley and Alexander Hughes finished a stand-out perfromance by winning the Medal race and finishing 7th overall, with Luke Patience and Chris Grube in 8th overall.
As training partners to Team GB’s Patience and Grube they are really setting the pace and it has been a while since they have had that home-grown pressure . . . let’s hope it is not too late.
470 Women – Final Euro Leaders – Points+ Medal (33 entries)
1st FRA 9 Camille LECOINTRE and Aloise RETORNAZ 40 – – 2 pts
2nd GBR 1 Hannah MILLS and Eilidh MCINTYRE 58 – – 6 pts
3rd SUI 5 Linda FAHRNI and Maja SIEGENTHALER 63 – – 12 pts
470 Mixed – Final Euro Leaders – Points+ Medal (33 entries)
1st ISR 15 Nitai HASSON and Saar TAMIR 59 – – 16 pts
2nd GER 13 Theres DAHNKE and Matti CIPRA 69 – – 14 pts
3rd GBR 11 Vita HEATHCOTE and Ryan ORR 89 – – 8 pts
470 Men – Final Open Leaders – Points+ Medal (33 entries)
1st NZL 1 Paul SNOW-HANSEN and Daniel WILLCOX 55 – – 8 pts
2nd FRA 27 Kevin PEPONNET and Jeremie MION 57 – – 18 pts
3rd ESP 44 Jordi XAMMAR and Nicolas RODRIGUEZ 64 – – 10 pts
GBR:
7th GBR 55 Martin WRIGLEY and Alexander HUGHES 89 – – 2 pts
8th GBR 4 Luke PATIENCE and Christian GRUBE 89 – – 12 pts
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