Barcelona International Sailing Centre, Barcelona, 10-19 May 2012
A patient morning was in order for the first race day of the 2012 470 World Championships to get underway as the sailors were kept postponed ashore waiting for wind. From early on, it was evident the scheduled start of 1200 hours was never going to happen.
The postponement flag eventually came down just after 1430 hours. fifty-four boat 470 Women split into two fleets - yellow and blue - and racing on course area bravo.
The conditions were really tricky, shifty and light winds of around 6 knots, and pressure moving all over the course, with only one race completed for all fleets.
470 Women It was a French show of prowess today, with the recently selected French Olympic team of Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron (FRA) taking the win in the blue fleet, with Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux (FRA) delivering the same in the yellow fleet.
Petijean summarized their race, "We had a good start and were leading the first half of the first leg, but we were 3rd at the first mark. So then we didn't take any risks, because 3rd in the opening race is good enough. We had some good speed on the last downwind and got to first at the finish. The first race is like any race, but we are not the kind to start a series well, as normally we start average and build, so we are happy to win. The goal now is to sail as well for the rest of the regatta."
The two Canadian 470 Women teams competing both have the same mission, qualify Canada to the Olympic Games and secure team be selected as the team. Between them, it was advantage Dana Archibald/Karen Dexter with a 9th place finish in the yellow fleet, over Hannah Meers/Erin Flanagan with a 20th in the blue fleet. Archibald explained,
"Basically we are trying to keep it simple, good start, stay clean and not get psyched out by the whole thing. There is a lot of pressure on a lot of teams and we are trying to use support from home for encouragement, rather than letting the pressure get in our heads and mess up our game plan."
With 2004 Olympic Gold medallist Kevin Burnham (USA) coaching the pair over the past few months, their performance is improving, as Archibald explained, "Yeh, Kevin has been the key role for us lately. We just started working with him for Palma and Hyeres. We struggled with speed previously and that has definitely been the biggest gain and now being able to go as fast as the other boats, we have been able to put other things into play such as tactics, which have been different for us beforehand."
A perfect comeback was executed by the Brazilian team of Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Barbachan who clawed their way up from the back of the fleet to cross in 10th, as Oliveira explained, "We had a good start but the first leg, the wind changed a lot so it was shifting and we made some mistakes and then we were at the back of the fleet. But we recovered and improved. It was really hard. Tomorrow is another day."
Whilst relishing the light conditions, the Danish pair of Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer, who narrowly missed out on nation qualification at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, did not have the best start to their series, taking a penalty turn after touching the stern of the Singaporean boat around a mark to end their race in 14th. Koch said, "It reminded me of the film 'Fast and Furious', we were trying to get through, but the boat in front just stopped!"
470 Women - Top 10 after Race 1 Pos Sailno Name R1 1 FRA 4 INGRID PETITJEAN, NADEGE DOUROUX 1 1 FRA 9 CAMILE LECOINTRE, MATILDE GERON 1 3 GBR 862 SOPHIE WEGUELIN, SOPHIE AINSWORTH 2 3 GER 21 KATHRIN KADELBACH, FRIEDERIKE BURNET 2 5 CHN 1261 FENG HUIMIN, HUANG LIZHU 3 5 NZL 75 JO ALEH, POLLY POWRIE 3 7 JPN 1 AI KONDO, WAKAKO TABATA 4 7 POL 11 AGNIESZKA SKRZYPULEC, JOLANTA OGAR 4 9 ARG 8 FERNANDA SESTO, CONSUELO MONSEGUR 5 9 AUS 1 ELISE RECHICHI, BELINDA STOWELL 5