If the issue of the regatta was almost decided yesterday for the Tornados, Ynglings and Europes, the fight for the title lasted until the last pump in all the other classes.
Enjoying a big lead after the last race sailed on Thursday, Mitch
BOOTH and Herbert DERCKSEN (NED) had already packed their Tornado to go home. Siren
SUNDBY who only had to secure her lead in yesterday's first race, didn't have to sail the last one scheduled for the Europe. It was the same situation for the British trio in the Yngling class: Shirley
ROBERTSON, Sarah AYTON and Sarah WEBB did a round of honour in the last race before heading back to the harbour.
It wasn't such a simple matter in the other classes where the places for the podium were disputed until the last race. In the 470 women, the French girls were on equal points with the British team going into the last race. Ingrid
PETITJEAN and Nadege DOUROUX from Marseille placed fifth to take the title from Christina
BASSADONE and Katherine HOPSON (GBR). A win in the last race brought the Spanish team of Natalia
VIA DUFRESNE and Sandra AZON to thhird overall.
In the Men's division, it was another victory for the French team with Benjamin and Romain
BONNAUD taking the regatta title from Nick
ROGERS Joe GLANFIELD now in third position. Despite a win on the last race, the Portuguese
Alvaro MARINHO and Miguel NUNES have to settle for Silver.
In the 2.4, the last race wasn't enough to separate regatta leader Thierry SCHMITTER from Daniel SEGUIN. The Dutch who collected 4 victories this week, won the regatta on count back. The French is in second position, in front of Allan
SMITH in a good position to win the Paralympic nomination for Great Britain. Decision will be taken by a selection committee panel next week in England.
There are only 3 points between the top 4 in the Mistral Women. Amelie
LUX (GER), in fifth place yesterday morning accedes to third place after winning both races. Olga
MASLIVETS (UKR) was able to conserve the lead of the regatta, only 1 point ahead of Pauline
PERRIN (FRA).
The Mistral Men was won by French Fabrice
HASSEN who overcame the New-Zealander Tom
ASHLEY by winning the last race of the Championship. Joao
RODRIGUES remains in third position.
In the 49er, the Sibello brothers conserved their lead to win the event from two Spanish crews. Padron/De la Plaza and Paez/de Bricio realized a good day to grab Silver and Bronze with only a point between them.
Emilios
PAPATHANASIOU sailing under GRE 7, increased his lead in the Finn class to 41 points over young Croatian, Marin
MISURA. Rafael
TRUJILLO from Spain climbed to third after suffering from the light conditions earlier this week.
Robert
SCHEIDT continued today on his impressive record. He placed in the top 4 in every race to win the regatta with a 10 points lead over Andreas
GERITZER from Austria and Paul
GOODISON (GBR).
In the Europe class, for whom the event was their final Olympic Qualification Regatta, the five slots up for grabs (subject to ISAF ratification) are: Italy, Argentina, Sweden, Portugal and Japan.
A total of 16 countries are shared the 33 medals. Full results from all classes are available on the event website at the address below.