The Official
Website of the
International
Sailing Federation

The British team of Asher and Willis won the Men's 470 gold medal after a nerve-racking medal race. As expected, the Norwegians Melleby and Pederson grabbed victory in the Star class. The Italian sailors Conti and Micol finished their job and won in the Women's 470 class. All races were covered live on the internet, by television and tracing & tracking.

Mens 470 medal race
The race started in light winds and drizzle. In fourth overall, the Croatians Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic were the crew who could gain the most despite an 11 point deficit from third placed Calabrese and De la Fuente (ARG). The Croatians started well and reached the top mark in front. The boats spread out on the downwind leg to hunt for more breeze. The Croatians increased their lead on the second upwind leg followed by the Australians Belcher and Page, Swedish crew Dahlberg and Ostling and regatta leaders Asher and Willis. The third beat saw an upset when the Israeli and the two French pairs went hard right, sneaked in between the Australians (second behind CRO) and the Brits who at this stage had lost the lead of the regatta to the Australians. Gideon Kliger and Eran Sela (ISR) closed to pass the Australians and the Croatians on the finish line. With the Israelis now in front, Asher and Willis regained their lead to win the regatta. The Croatians, second in the medal race took third behind the Australians.

"The first couple of laps were pretty standard really," explained Willis of their medal race. "We had good boat speed, the boat felt nice. Up at the end of the last weather leg, just before all the rain came in, the wind started to go wacky and we got a little bit caught out in the middle."

"Two boats overtook us and we went round the windward mark in a big group and had seen that the Croatian guy had gybed out of the windward mark and was reaching down towards the finish in a load of breeze that had come in ahead of the cloud. We gybed just after the mark and then just reached to the finish!"

Asher added: "Our conservative day didn't go to plan, picking up an OCS in the first race but then we pulled it back to fifth, we made it hard for ourselves when we shouldn't have really. But the win is good - we've had a barren spell so it's good to be back on winning form and hopefully it'll continue in July for our World Championships."

Star medal race
The Croatian sailors stole the show once again in the Star medal race. In a repeat of the 470 Mens medal race, Mate Arapov and Ante Sitic started in fourth position. They won the race with a good lead to take second overall. The Norwegians Melleby and Pederson, who after a bad start, worked back through the fleet to place second, collecting their third ISAF Sailing World Cup title this year after victories in Miami and Hyeres.

"We had an average start when we misjudged the time. We were fifth which was enough to keep the title. We didn't want to take too many risks so took it easy. We finally got to second so it is great" The Norwegians will concentrate on the ISAF Sailing World Cup events this year and will miss the Star Europeans.

Womens 470 medal race
The French 470 sailors dominated in their medal race. Once again, the fourth placed team made the most of the medal race. Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux (FRA) fourth earlier in the morning, placed second behind Emmanuelle Rol and Helene de France (FRA) to take bronze. Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) and World Champions Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) kept their earlier positions. The Italians win the gold at the 2010 Delta Lloyd Regatta.

Sunday will see plenty more action on the Ijsselmeer. The remaining medal races will be sailed as well as a last race for the 2.4mR and for the sailors not selected for the medal races.

Laser Radial
Evi van Acker (BEL) won both races closing the gap on Marit Bouwmeester (NED) before the medal race. "I had good starts," explained Evi, "I overstood the top mark and got fifth at the top mark but caught up downwind to win. For the second race I had a good start, but again overstood the top mark; luckily, I took a gust and went from 15th to 3rd at the bottom mark then tacked away and grabbed the lead. This week I have won races in both extreme conditions and feel good about the medal race"

Laser
Tom Slingsby (AUS) conserved the lead in the Laser gold fleet. The Australian who is racing his first international event this year at the Delta Lloyd Regatta explains,
"There is still a long way to go until the Olympics so I prefer to take it easy and not race too much. I am now in Europe for four years. I use this regatta to train before our Europeans in Estonia. Then I will go to Kiel, Weymouth and finally the Worlds in England in September. I stay in Europe for four months. Its hard to travel to all the events when you live in Australia but once in Europe it is easier to travel around."

About his regatta: "I didn't expect to do so well. I am comfortable in the breeze but still need to improve in the light even if I have made some good progress. I know I can still improve everything a little more. I need to find a bit more 'finesse' that the Europeans have!" Slingsby has a comfortable 16 point lead going into the medal race.

49er
Nico Delle Karth and Nikolau Resch (AUT) will start the 49er medal race as favourites. "We have been quite consistent this week. We are happy to be in the top three with such a big fleet. We are going into the medal race with a six point lead, which is nice. I hope that the Australians and the New Zealanders who are just one point apart will cover each other, but it might not happen! We haven't won any regattas since Miami OCR last year so we are ready to take another one"

The Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen are in second, only one point ahead of New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Only the top four can claim gold on Sunday.

Finn
The Finn medal race will be very close with 15 points separating the top five. A talented field of sailors within the top ten will provide for interesting racing. Double European champion and World number one sailor Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) will start with a narrow five point lead over Athens Silver medallist, Rafael Trujillo from Spain, and nine points over Beijing silver medallist, Zach Railey (USA).

RS:X
The dying wind in the afternoon only allowed for one race in the mens gold fleet. Przemek Miarcynski (POL) realised a fine performance this week scoring seven top five results including four victories. Team mate Piotr Myszka has climbed to second overall, one point ahead of third and fourth overall placed Nimrod Mashiah (ISR) and Alexandre Guyader (FRA). The medal race will be a clash of champions.

With strong winds expected, reaching 30 knots, the RS:X medal race is sure to provide plenty of excitement. The Womens RS:X results are not yet released at time of going to press.

2.4mR
The 2.4mR will sail an extra fleet race on Sunday. Damien Seguin (FRA) is closing the gap over regatta leader Thiery Schmitter (NED). British ladies Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe are also keeping it close with Pascoe winning her second race of the day.

Womens Match Racing
Apart for the medal races, the Womens Match Racing teams will sail their semi-finals and finals. Lucy MacGregor (GBR) will meet Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) and Tamara Echegoyen will race against Anne-Claire Leberre (FRA).

The Medal races will be broadcasted live on www.deltalloydregatta.tv with 3D tracking integrated in the footage.

The 2.4mR and Star fleet races can be followed on www.deltalloydregatta.org with 3D tracking and tracing.

Regular Twitter updates will keep everyone informed throughout the day. news, pictures and videos will be available daily on the event website and the Sailing World Cup Facebook site. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sailing-World-Cup/108423949339)

Twitter (http://twitter.com/DeltaLloydRegat)

For more details visit the regatta website : www.deltalloydregatta.org

For the latest news, photos and videos, as well as Standings, event details and more, visit the ISAF Sailing World Cup website at www.sailing.org/worldcup