Something of a leader board reset on day 4 of the ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico.
The first day of gold and silver fleet racing saw leader Jean-Baptiste Bernaz of France take his first race win to extend his lead to 26 points, as one of the few from the yellow flight side of the draw to maintain his form.
Bernaz took first and fourth place finishes, matched by New Zealand’s defending champion Tom Saunders (4, 1) to bring him up into third place, behind Jonatan Vadnai HUN (14, 24) and tied on 48 points with Ireland’s Finn Lynch (7, 2).
Tonci Stipanovic CRO (13, 9) is now in fifth place on 49 points, with Britain’s Elliot Hanson (18, 18) dropping to sixth overall with 51 points.
The lighter winds, a moderate 9 to 11-knot thermal breeze, and the new gold fleet composition for the first day of the final series, showed in the ten Black Flag penalties in the first race.
None of the British sailing team members finished in single figures on day 4. Sam Whaley with a 10 and 13 was the best on the day, holding onto tenth place with 61 points.
Dan Whiteley (20, 15) drops to eighth with 54 points, and Micky Beckett (BFD, 16) to 20th with 95 points.
The brits were not the only ones to suffer, Pavlos Kontides CYP with a 25 and 27 drops to ninth and Philipp Buhl GER with a 46 and 17 to 11th overall.
Two improvers from down the fleet were Aussie Finn Alexander with a 15 and 3, now in 15th place and William De Smet of Belgium with a 2 and 37 in 17th overall.
More movement is likely Friday as a second discard will come into play, which may help Hanson and Whitely if they are to get back into podium contention.
The event finishes on Saturday 28 May 2022.
2022 ILCA 7 Mens World Championship – Leaders after 2 Final races (126 entries)
1st FRA Jean-Baptiste Bernaz -19 3 2 3 2 2 1 4 – – 17 pts
2nd HUN Jonatan Vadnai 2 2 11 7 1 6 14 -24 – – 43 pts
3rd NZL Thomas Saunders 4 10 -19 12 13 4 4 1 – – 48 pts
4th IRL Finn Lynch 10 2 4 13 10 -64 7 2 – – 48 pts
5th CRO Tonci Stipanovic 5 3 3 8 8 -29 13 9 – – 49 pts
6th GBR Elliot Hanson 6 -26 4 1 1 3 18 18 – – 51 pts
7th CRO Filip Jurišic 3 6 14 13 9 3 3 -51 – – 51 pts
8th GBR Daniel Whiteley 8 -27 1 2 4 4 20 15 – – 54 pts
9th CYP Pavlos Kontides 11 8 6 2 3 1 25 -27 – – 56 pts
10th GBR Sam Whaley 7 17 -24 10 2 2 10 13 – – 61 pts
11th GER Philipp Buhl 6 19 14 1 5 5 -46 17 – – 67 pts
12th POR Eduardo Marques 14 7 7 -30 11 1 17 10 – – 67 pts
13th PER Stefano Peschiera 16 4 19 4 15 13 5 -49 – – 76 pts
14th ESP Joel Rodriguez 13 9 8 10 17 -64 11 8 – – 76 pts
15th AUS Finn Alexander -30 23 20 6 9 7 15 3 – – 83 pts
16th GER Nik Aaron Willim 2 7 13 -37 16 8 9 34 – – 89 pts
17th BEL William De Smet 8 5 15 15 8 -64 2 37 – – 90 pts
18th NED Niels Broekhuizen 5 8 2 8 25 6 -44 38 – – 92 pts
19th CHI Clemente Seguel 19 -32 8 16 16 7 16 11 – – 93 pts
20th GBR Michael Beckett 4 11 17 7 29 11 (64.0 BFD) 16 – – 95 pts
Other GBR:
57th Gold GBR James Percival-Cooke 47.0 50.0 – – 210.0 pts
75th Silver GBR Jacob Farren-Price 8.0 26.0 – – 206.0 pts
