| ROTA, BAY OF CADIZ, SPAIN-(18-9-2003) In a 10-12 knots shifty ES breeze and choppy seas, first two races have been completed in the both the 470 Men and 470 Women as start of the World Championship as part of the ISAF World Sailing Championships for Olympic Classes.on the Bay of Cadiz.
The Men are seperated in three groups (33/33/32), the Women in two groups (27/28)
The opening results in the Mens Fleet are kind of remarkable, but exiting
Italy’s Gabrio ZANDONA / Andrea TRANI have set the lead by two wins on the 1st day Qualifiers.in their group. Still they have filed a protest against Sweden`s Johan MOLUND / Martin ANDERSON that shall be handled the next few hours.
Daeyoung KIM / Sungahn JUNG from Korea set the lead for Asia by a perfect second overall position after two races.
With pride for their performance, Mathew and Daniel Belcher have sailed themselves in front of their fellow Australian team Nathan WILMOT / Malcolm PAGE.
“It has been quite some time since we had such beautiful windy conditions with choppy seas” said Daniel. “We feel pretty good in these conditions. Last time we can remember we had such circumstances has been at the SOF at Hyères and the Princess Sofia Cup at Mallorca.”
For the Australians, this Worlds event is very important. The last European Championship and especially this Worlds event counts as qualifying event for the Olympics.
Mathew (20) and Daniel (22) grew up on the water and have been sailing since they were very young. Without specific interest for regatta sailing at home, both brothers started team racing in the Laser Radial, which is very popular where they come from.
In 2000 they became World Champion at the 420 Worlds in La Rochelle.
The crew leading in age, winners of the last Open European Championship and one of the favorites for the Title of this Championship are Paul FOERSTER (39) and Kevin BURNHAM (47) from the USA. They sailed a 3rd position in both races today and currently take the 5th place overall.
Paul and Kevin are experienced Olympic Sailors. Paul won Silver in the FD Class in 1992 at the Olympics in Barcelona. Kevin was already active at that time in the 470 Class and won Silver at the same 1992 Olympic event. In 1996 Paul skipped the Atlanta Olympics because the FD had lost its Olympic status, he got married and focused on other things in life.
The Olympic feeling started itching and so Paul and Bob MERRICK found each other in 1997 and started sailing 470. Their campaign was very successful. They won Silver at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. After the Olympics they separated in good relation. Paul couldn’t stop and now sails the 470 with Kevin BURNHAM for two years now on their way to Athens 2004.
On the way down in the current results list we find lots of sailors who were to be expected ranked higher on the list. However, only two races have been completed and the coming days lots of questions will be answered.
Title defenders Simon COOKE / Peter NICHOLAS had a good 1st race and ended as 2nd. Their 2nd race where they ended 12th puts them on a 14th position overall.
At the 470 Women Fleet the tone is set as the current overall results of the top 4 show exactly the outcome of last year’s World Championship.
Nevertheless, Sofia BEKATOROU / Emilia TSOULFA from Greece , currently ranked 1st and Lisa WESTERHOF and Margriet MATTHIJSSE from The Netherlands, ranked 2nd have shown some outstanding sailing in the first two races to end way in front of the rest of the Fleet in their different Groups.
During the first race in Group A , Marcelien DE KONING / Lobke BERKHOUT, also from the Netherlands, were leading the Fleet convincingly ahead of Lisa and Margriet and the rest of the Fleet with a perfect win as a result.. In the second race they managed to maintain position in front, however they lost their grip at the downwind mark at the final end of the race to end in a unfortunate 18th position.
After two races and based on performance, Lisa en Margriet currently may be the closest to another attempt to fetch the Worlds Title that the Greece girls have been defending with success the last three years.
Lisa and Margriet form a team in the 470 now since March last year. Both girls that have written several Titles to their names may be two pieces of the puzzle to success.
After becoming World Champion Optimist, Lisa had a short 420 period before she started sailing 470. She missed the Sydney Olympics in the 470 on a minimum of points.
Lisa, ambitious as she is, recently finished her study. In daily life she is 2nd Officer at the Royal Dutch Airlines where she, flies a Boeing 747 at the time she is not helming a 470.
Margriet, won Silver at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics in the Europe class. A few years ago she was announced as ISAF World Sailor of the year for outstanding performance, just like Sofia and Emilia in 2002.
Sofia an Emilia see forward to the competition that has just been started. Well known for their positive attitude towards the sailing sport and their motto “Let the best team win! Emilia BEKATOROU smiles. “ We are satisfied with today’s result, but we stay careful and concentrated. It has only been the first day of racing.
Racing resumes tomorrow at 12am.
For more information and results, visit the event web site at www.cadizworlds2003.com or the Int’l 470 Class web site at www.470.org
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