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Sailing - 14. May 2012.

470 World Championships - Race Day 1 Report

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
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