Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship
Olympic qualification completed for RSX Men and Women in Santander
Men’s RS:X
Three races were scheduled today for RS:X class on one of the furthest courses out, Telefonica, but they were sailed back to back extremely fast in the Men’s and Women’s Gold fleet.
A tricky south to south westerly breeze with big waves and strong current did not change the top RS:X Men, but made some adjustments to the top ten.
2012 RS:X World Champion and 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Julien Bontemps (FRA) had another brilliant day (4,1,4) to have almost unbeatable 15-points lead over second place Piotr Myszka (POL). He plans to check out the Duna course before the Medal Race and then rely on his good and experienced sailing brain and technique.
Myszka scored two good ones (2,6) and discarded a 15th to have a three point advantage over his team mate and London-2012 Bronze medallist Przemyslaw Miarczynski, who’s kept consistent to protect his third position finishing 7,5,7.
France’s Thomas Goyard (9,2,10) and Byron Kokkalanis from Greece (5,3,13) both had good solid racing up until the last race and sit fourth and fifth overall. Those two have a chance to get to the podium if they sail a perfect Medal Race or the Polish lose their grip.
The last five men in the top ten unfortunately cannot deliver a medal for themselves, but can definitely affect the podium picture.
2013 RSX World Champion Britain’s Nick Dempsey hasn’t performed in his usual style at this event, six overall is obviously not his desirable place but two great last races (4,2) are a cool comfort for him.
A frustrating eighth overall for the London 2012 Olympic Gold medallist Dorian Van Rijsselberge could be possibly explained by a romantic mood after his recent marriage with beautiful Sasha Plavsic.
It’s been a pretty impressive performance for the French Team who have four Men’s RS:X sailors in the Medal Race.
Extremely strong winds in the final series has produced the
first 18 countries qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 in RSX Men:
France , Poland, Greece, Great Britain, Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Spain,
New Zealand, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Argentina, Lithuania, Italy, Russia*, Japan, Norway
*Subject to IOC Confirmation
Women’s RS:X
Vive la France is that can be said about the amazing performance from Charline Picon who has already won gold in the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships. She still needs to sail a Medal Race though, but it won’t affect her gold medal.
In her after race interview to the RSX Class Charline has opened her secret of winning - unsurprisingly its a HARDWORK together with properly set program and smart nutrition.
Big respect and congratulations to Cedric Leroy - Charline’s and Eugenie’s coach!
It was a catastrophic day for Polish Zofia Klepacka who went from second overnight to tenth overall after extremely poor racing (12,16,17) on Telefonica course and is therefore out of the medal hunt.
Two experienced windsurfers Maayan Davidovich (ISR) and home sailor Marina Alabau have climbed little by little throughout the regatta and are into second and third with two points separating them.
Britain’s Bryony Shaw is chasing the leaders but with ten points to climb it’s going to be a tough task for her. Still the trickiest Duna Medal Race course can make a significant change in the expectations of the audience.
Chinese Jiahui Wu is fifth overall and is followed by Flavia Tartaglini (Italy), Lilian De Geus from Netherlands and Britain’s Isobel Hamilton with their final positions to be decided on the Medal Race outcome.
Two brilliant races (4,1) were not enough to help Spain’s Blanca Manchon jump into the Medal Race as she missed out by a tiny three points .
Top 13 nations qualified for Olympic Games in Rio 2016 in RSX Girls:
France, Israel, Spain, Great Britain, China, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Russia, New Zealand, Estonia, Mexico
Website: http://www.santander2014.com/
ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel
Photo Credit - Vincenzo BAGLIONE / www.rsxclass.org, Friedrich WILHELM
Results can be found here: http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php
Top10 RSX Men Results:
| Pos | Nation | Sail Number | Crew | Race | Points | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Total | Net | ||||
| 1 | FRA | FRA 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | (7) | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 36.00 | 29.00 | |
| 2 | POL | POL 82 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 6 | (15) | 59.00 | 44.00 | |
| 3 | POL | POL 126 | 2 | 7 | (8) | 2 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 55.00 | 47.00 | |
| 4 | FRA | FRA 3 | 19 | (30) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 87.00 | 57.00 | |
| 5 | GRE | GRE 8 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 12 DPI |
8 | (15) | 3 | 5 | 3 | 13 | 75.00 | 60.00 | |
| 6 | GBR | GBR 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 11 | (20) | 19 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 88.00 | 68.00 | |
| 7 | FRA | FRA 1 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 9 | (27) | 106.00 | 79.00 | |
| 8 | NED | NED 8 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 15 | (19) | 11 | 98.00 | 79.00 | |
| 9 | FRA | FRA 77 | 1 | 1 | (50) DSQ |
10 | 1 | 15 | 21 | 13 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 133.00 | 83.00 | |
| 10 | NED | NED 9 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 17 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 8 | (31) | 14 | 123.00 | 92.00 | |
Top10 RSX Girls results:
| Pos | Nation | Sail Number | Crew | Race | Points | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Total | Net | ||||
| 1 | FRA | FRA 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | (9) | 34.00 | 25.00 | |
| 2 | ISR | ISR 10 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 8 | (16) | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 69.00 | 53.00 | |
| 3 | ESP | ESP 5 | 5 | (16) | 13 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 71.00 | 55.00 | |
| 4 | GBR | GBR 9 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 9 | (23) | 10 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 88.00 | 65.00 | |
| 5 | CHN | CHN 5 | 3 | 15 | (16) | 1 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 83.00 | 67.00 | |
| 6 | FRA | FRA 22 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 7 | (13) | 12 | 82.00 | 69.00 | |
| 7 | ITA | ITA 46 | 2 | (17) | 14 | 9 | 11 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 88.00 | 71.00 | |
| 8 | NED | NED 171 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 5 | (13) | 9 | 6 | 10 | 85.00 | 72.00 | |
| 9 | GBR | GBR 30 | 6 | 2 | 7 | (16) | 8 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 90.00 | 74.00 | |
| 10 | POL | POL 8 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 16 | (17) | 96.00 | 79.00 | |
P.S. Pretty interesting law could be seen among leaders especially in men:
All top three men are the fathers of two: Julien has two sons (4,5 years old and 5months old), Piotr has a son (5yo) and a daughter (2yo) and Przemyslaw’s kids are 5 and 3 years old. Nick Dempsey is a father of two sons as well.
Two mothers in the top10 RSX Girls are: Marina Alabau with one year old daughter and absolute leader children wise - Zofia Klepacka –mother of two (5year old son and under one year old daughter)!
We can’t pass impressive performance of 2012 London Silver Medalist Tuuli Petaja-Siren (15th overall) who’s racing and still breastfeeding her 8 months old daughter!
So to those who wants to be on the top of RSX rankings – you know what to do now:-).
