470 Women A smooth performance from Spain's Tara Pacheco/Berta Betanzos pushes them into the overall lead, with a win in race 3 and fifth in race 4, and gives them a 12 point margin over second placed Fernanda Oliviera/Ana Luisa Barbachan (BRA).
"It was really good," explained Betanzos, "we had a good start and we were in the top five since the start of the race and at the first mark we were second and were then second all the race and on the last downwind we were first. It was a good race."
A real tumble down the standings for the overnight leaders Tina Mrak/Teja Cerne (SLO) who finished sixteenth in race 3, but were black flagged in race 4, points which can only be discarded after five races have been completed.
Japan's Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata are into their third Olympic campaign and so bring many years of experience to their racing. As Kondo commented, "I am very happy in all conditions, although we were expecting light winds here after the experiences of our training days before the Championships." Their experience didn't help today, as despite leading around the track for most of race 4, they slipped up on the last leg to the Greek team of Virginia Kravarioti/Olga Tsigaridi who took the race win by 2 seconds. Adding further pain for the Japanese was the subsequent discovery of their black flag penalty in that race, which now puts them in eleventh overall after four races.
Catching up with Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) after racing, Clark exclaimed, "We wish we'd stayed in bed today!" They protested the Race Committee, but lost, after a black flag in race 3. Onto race 4, a capsize to windward going downwind, and a spinnaker filled with water proved time consuming to recover leaving them at the back of the fleet. "Our boat has a very polished bottom," frowned Mills referencing their struggle on the upturned hull. These two are not used to being at the back of the fleet, and since pairing up earlier this year they have secured second place finishes at two ISAF Sailing World Cup events.
After four races Tara Pacheco/Berta Betanzos (ESP) lead, Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Luisa Barbachan (BRA) in second and Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer (DEN) in third.
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