10:17 PM Thu 11 Jun 2009 GMT
The Open 470 Class Championships for Men/Mixed and Women went into it's fourth day today, finally with the qualifiers completed for the men's event.
In a total contrast compared to the days before, wind came, and built to over 25 knots with Harada Ryunosuke Yoshida Yugo (JPN) taking over the lead from Croatia in the men's event. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) retain the lead in the women's.
Today's main objective was to finalize the qualifiers in the men's 470 event. A series of at least six races should have been completed by Wednesday, but because of the wind conditions the qualifying series was extended to today.
Just like the days before, competitors were waiting until the early afternoon for the breeze. Unexpectedly and suddenly, it was going to be a day with action in strong, gusty winds over 25 knots. An opportunity for all-rounders and heavy air specialists to make their mark in this Championship.
Men's 470
Today was a chance for Austria's Matthias Smid and Florian Reichstaedter to do well before the home public. They won the race in their group, as did Patryk Piasecki and Marcin Mickiewicz from Poland. With the wins today, they secure their position in the gold fleet, in the final series starting tomorrow.
'Great racing today. We were really waiting for a positive result after having been a little deep in the last races. Our primary goal was to reach the medal race, and we are now back in the game, with 15 points deficit, but that means nothing under the tricky conditions on Traunsee ' Matthias Schmid said.
Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic form Croatia sailed a bad race ending up in 21st position. They lost their overnight lead to Harada Ryunosuke Yoshida Yugo from Japan, who didn't reach the finish today, but used the result as the discard.
The difference in points from the #1 leader to rank #20, is only 29 points. In the current situation and with the difficult conditions, gold fleet sailors can still rise and fall.
Women's 470
Not many changes today at the top of the women's leaderboard. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) extended their lead over Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata (JPN) by a few points. Both ladies, who have been leading the women's fleet in the same order from the beginning of this Championship, finished today's only race in fifth and 12th position respectively.
Mandy Mulder and Merel Witteveen from the Netherlands kept improving and won today's race, followed by Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP). The ladies from Spain climb into the top ten with a fifth overall position, nine points away from the Japanese women, who are in second place.
The local public were hoping for some Austrian success in the women's fleet. Title defender Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher (AUS) climbed to seventh position in the overall rankings yesterday, but in today's only completed race they were unfortunate in the gusty conditions and capsized.
'We were not too bad and on our way when suddenly we got a puff from the leeward side. We had no chance to react and capsized. Its a discard in the result but it hurts a bit. Anyway, it is now on us to fight back. We are still in the game and full of hope. The medal race is our main goal' Sylvia Vogl said.
A second race was sailed today in the women's fleet, but in worsening conditions. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol had their prayers answered when, shortly after they capsized, the race was cancelled due to the wind direction having changed by 180 degrees.
Racing continues tomorrow, with the action in Austria continuing through until the Medal Races on 14 June.
TOP 10 470 Men
1 JPN 4340 Ryunosuke Harada/Yugo Yoshida 23
2 CRO 83 Fantela Sime / Marenic Igor 30
3 GER 49 Zellmer Lucas / Seelig Heiko 31
4 ITA 2 Zandona Gabrio / Edoardo Mancinelli 35
5 AUS 11 Belcher Mathew / Page Malcolm 35
6 ITA 11 Zeni Fabio / Pitanti Nicola 39
7 GRE 165 Mantis Panagiotis / Kagialis Pavlos 40
8 GRE 1 Kambouridis Panagiotis / Orologas Gerasimos 44
9 FRA 7 Charbonnier Nicolas / Meyer-Dieu Baptiste 44
10 UKR 5 Moshkovskyy Vitaliy / Polishchuk Sergii 46
TOP 10 470 Women
1 ITA 23 Conti Giulia / Micol Giovanna 13
2 JPN 4151 Kondo Ai / Tabata Wakako 20
3 GRE 887 Economou Anthi / Tsigaridi Olga 21
4 NZL 75 Aleh Jo / Powrie Olivia 27
5 ESP 696 Pacheco Tara / Betanzos Berta 29
6 NED 7 Mulder Mandy / Witteveen Merel 30
7 ESP 133 Gallego Marina / Rita Roman Julia 38
8 GER 4983 Bochmann Annika / Lorenz Anika 38
9 AUT 431 Vogl Sylvia / Flatscher Carolina 40
10 DEN 143 Koch Henriette / Sommer Lene 42
Full results are available at the event web site: www.traunseewoche.at/
by Rick van Wijngaarden/Amended by Sail-World.com
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