Two days left and all to play for at Delta Lloyd Regatta
Written by RYA | 23 May 2013
Two more days of EUROSAF action remain in Holland, with the first medals to be decided on Friday evening
After two weather-affected days at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in the Netherlands, normal service resumed on Thursday (23 May) with a full schedule of racing at this EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup event in Medemblik.
A mixed bag of conditions across the Ijsselmeer provided both physical and cerebral tests for the Olympic and Paralympic classes sailors competing at this second stage of the new EUROSAF circuit (21-25 May), where the first of the regatta medals are due to be decided in the 49er and 49erFX classes on Friday evening.
The two skiff classes will see a full-on programme tomorrow, with four finals series fleet races apiece determining which eight boats will qualify for the three-race medal stage later that evening.
The British Sailing Team crews are currently poised in the top eight in the 49er class, with Dave Evans and Ed Powys currently in fourth and with one eye on their third straight podium finish, while the new British squad pairings of John Pink-Simon Wheeler and Stuart Bithell-Chris Grube will be aiming for their first medal race spots of the season.
In the women’s 49erFX, Frances Peters and Sophie Ainsworth are in fifth place with teammate Penny Clark and Mary Rook also inside the top eight, in eighth, heading into the high-stakes final day for the class.
Elsewhere, Alison Young tops the leaderboard in the Laser Radial class, with Ireland’s Annalise Murphy equal on points in second place, and with the host’s Olympic silver medallist Marit Bouwmeester snapping at their heels in third. They’re scheduled for three fleet races on Friday ahead of their medal finale on Saturday.
Megan Pascoe, gunning for her fourth podium spot of the year, is also in pole position in the 2.4mR Paralympic class, counting all first and second places from her six races in the series so far, while Paralympic champion Helena Lucas is also in touch with the podium spots, in third overall.
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre, competing in their third event as a pairing, posted 3,2,8 from their three races in the 470 women’s class on Thursday to remain in second overall behind New Zealand’s Olympic Champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, while in the Finn class, overnight leader Andrew Mills picked up a black flag disqualification in his third race of the day to see him drop to seventh. With the medal race cut here at six boats for all the Olympic classes (except the skiffs) the Hyeres World Cup winner will be hoping for better fortune on Friday.
Mills’s teammate Mark Andrews is poised just outside the top three, on equal points with Poland’s Piotr Kula who is just ahead of the Brit on countback.
The Paralympic Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are in third overall, while British sailors in the Nacra 17, RS:X Women’s and Laser events will be pushing to make the medal race spots for Saturday. Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond are currently the highest-placed British team in the Nacra multihull event, in ninth overall with three fleet races tomorrow, while Izzy Hamilton, in her first event back since recovering from a whooping cough-type illness is 11th in the RS:X women’s windsurfing event. She’s scheduled for four races tomorrow ahead of Saturday’s medal race, with Nick Thompson hoping to improve on his eight place in the Laser class in their three races on Thursday afternoon.
Friday’s racing is scheduled to start at 0930hrs (local). Follow the action on Twitter @BritishSailing or visit www.deltalloydregatta.org for live GPS tracking of the races.