Day 3 on the Bay of Palma and life isn’t becoming any more straightforward for the 1100 athletes competing at the 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels Olympic regatta.
No one has mastered the vagaries of the Bay of Palma quite like British ILCA 7 racer Micky Beckett. Winner of the past four editions of the event, with a new race format being trialled for the first time at the Trofeo Princesa Sofía, Beckett is aware that the most important battles are yet to come.
“We are into the Final (Elimination) series with the points compressed to single points here and there so it is very much still on with as many as six races still could be sailed, so you could say there is still half a regatta left.”
In the ILCA 7 just one race completed Wednesday and Australia’s Matt WEARN keeps his lead after another race win with 2 pts overall. Second Micky Beckett third with 12 pts, and third Ole SCHWECKENDIEK tied on 13pts with Elliot HANSON.
In the women’s ILCA 6, Eve McMahon (IRL) managed to hold on to her lead with a sixth place for 7 pts overall. Double world champion Emma Plasschaert (BEL) holds second overall with 8 pts. Britain’s Daisy COLLINGRIDGE jumps into 4th overall with 16 pts.
In the 470 fleet, Martin WRIGLEY and Bettine HARRIS add a -7, 4, 3 to their score and are 5th overall. Hannah BRISTOW and James TAYLOR picked-up a win in the second race and are 14th overall.
Back in the 470 lead are Jordi XAMMAR and Marta CARDONA of Spain, second Matisse PACAUD and Lucie DE GENNES of France and third Elena BERTA and Giulio CALABRO of Italy.
In the women’s FX, Spain’s Paula BARCELO and Maria CANTERO are tied on 32 pts for the lead with Maru SCHEEL and Freya FEILCKE of Germany. Britain’s Freya BLACK and Saskia TIDEY slip back to fourth with 38 pts after eight races.
In the men’s 49er, Britain’s James GRUMMETT and Rhos HAWES continued to climb, now in fourth with 30 pts. Nevin SNOW and Ian MACDIARMID of the USA are leading on 25 pts, second Hernán UMPIERRE and Fernando DIZ of Uruguay and third, former leaders, Australia’s Harry PRICE and Max PAUL.
No racing for the Nacra 17, which means that the Swedes, Emile Järudd and Hanna Jonsson, continue to hold the lead.
No races for the Men’s iQFOil, Duncan MONAGHAN keeps his lead. Second is the USA’s Noah LYONS on 22pts tied with Johan SØE of Denmark.
In the Women’s iQFOiL Poland’s Anastasiya Valkevich continues to the leaderboard after three more races, leading Israel’s Tamar Steinberg by two points. Emma Wilson is 10th.
In the women’s Formula Kite, reigning World Champion from the Netherlands Jessie Kampman has won six of the eight heats held so far. Olympic silver medallist from France, Lauriane Nolot, holds second place ahead of Chenxue Liu, part of a strong Chinese squad, in third overall.
In the men’s Kite reigning World Champion from Italy, Riccardo Pianosi, holds top spot by the narrowest of margins from the 19-year-old Max Maeder, Singapore’s Olympic bronze medallist.
On Thursday, all but one of the 10 fleets move on to the next round of the competition. With only four races completed, the men’s windsurfers are the only fleet who need to run more qualifying heats before the competition can proceed to the next level.
The 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 fleets have now completed their preliminary series and the top 25 in each fleet race in the Gold fleet. Which means that their carry forward score will be adjusted to match their race position eg. 5th place = score of 5pts etc.
Leading GBR Scores after day 3
