Winds gusting up to 28 knots tested the 92 teams to the limit in Medemblik on day two of the Delta Lloyd Junior 470 World Championships. Local Dutch team Nina Keijzer and Anneloes van Veen looked very comfortable in the big breeze, taking a big lead that took even them by surprise.
“We started well, were going very fast and suddenly we were ahead of the fleet,” said Keijzer. “The Australians came back to us on the downwind legs, carrying the stronger down with them and there wasn’t much we could do about that.” But Keijzer and van Veen moved away again to score a dominant victory in the first heat.
Others weren’t so fortunate with a number of broken masts, including the Malaysians and Japanese. They said they would be praying for the wind to drop, although the forecast suggests the wind gods have another strong day in mind for Sunday.
In the second women’s heat, the German team of Annika Bochman and Anika Lorenz were lying in first place as they approached the windward mark, with the rain lashing down, massively reducing visibility and the wind gusting to its highest strength of the day. Bochmann and Lorenz are looking to improve on their silver medal from last year’s Junior World Championship, and a race win would have been very useful - but it was not to be. The race committee abandoned the race, sending the girls teams in before more carnage ensued.
Keijzer and van Veen’s race win moves them into the lead overall, ahead of yesterday’s leaders from Great Britain, Anna Burnet and Flora Stewart, with Bochmann and Lorenz in 3rd overall.
