Day 4 Analysis: Peaks and troughs of performance

Men’s Windsurfing: Van Opzeeland fires back

Luuc van Opzeeland had started his campaign in the worst way possible with a Black Flag Disqualification on the first and only race of Monday. The Dutch favourite made amends in the best way possible on a big five-race day on day four of the Games. Through a mix of short-sharp slalom races and the longer course racing heats, Van Opzeeland hammered home some good scores to rise to the top of the rankings. 

The first slalom race of the session appeared to catch a lot of the fleet unawares. Massed up at the right-hand end of the start line, as the clock ticked down the riders just weren’t moving. Not for lack of wanting to, there was just no wind at their end of the line. Less than a hundred metres further away at the left-hand end of the line, Noah Lyons wind-whacked his board up on to the foil and the American was up, up and away down the race track. Brazil’s Mateus Isaac was not far behind the leader while the rest of the fleet eventually caught enough breeze to get up and running, although they were never going to catch the wily (or was it lucky?) Lyons and Isaac who crossed in first and second respectively.

Poor old Nicolo Renna, the reigning World Champion from Italy, suffered equipment failure with his wishbone boom. After trying to patch it up with a make-do-and-mend attempt to keep on racing, the Italian had to sit out the first two races while he got a new boom from the shore and got back out there. Despite the massive setback, the rest of his scores were good enough to put him in sixth overall. A much better outcome than it might have been.

Good solid days for Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski and Tom Reuveny from Israel who hold second and third overall behind the flying Dutchman.

Women’s Windsurfing: Winning Wilson

On a day where so many failed to live up to their billing as hot favourite, Great Britain’s Emma Wilson dominated today’s Women’s Windsurfing races, getting all her scores in the top two except for an aberration in Race 5 when a 17th place reminded us that she is actually mortal. Wilson sits on an aggregate score (with discard) of 8 points, putting her significantly ahead of Israel’s reigning world champion Sharon Kantor who sits in second with 25 points. Italy’s Marta Maggetti is also sailing consistently to hold third spot with 30 points, some way ahead of Peru’s Maria Bazo in fourth.

Women’s Skiff: 3,2,1 GO! for the Kiwis

What a difference a day makes. The multi-medalled 49erFX team from New Zealand had been languishing in last place little more than a day ago, but with today’s stronger breeze on the Calanques race course made for a different style of skiff racing. Jo Aleh and Molly Meech stretched their legs, leaned back in their trapeze harnesses, and got the Kiwi skiff planing into the finish line with scores of 3,2,1. They now lie in seventh overall and if they could enjoy another day like that, New Zealand could even be back in medal contention.

The Swedes were also looking forward to stretching their legs and ready to roll out their super strength. Their starts looked a little over conservative and Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler were often bounced off on to port tack behind their faster-starting rivals to look for some clear air. Once they found a clear lane then the Swedes could exert their boatspeed advantage to claims scores of 2,1,5 which lifts them to third overall in the standings. 

A shaky start for the Dutch with a 19th place but Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz hit their stride in the next heats to take finishes of 3,2. With the French struggling to maintain their devastating form in the lighter breeze of the first two days, the Dutch moved into the lead and relegate France to the silver medal position.

Men’s Skiff: Spanish Fly

A good day for the Dutch in the women’s skiff, but no comeback for the Dutch favourites in the Men’s Skiff fleet. Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken have been the standout team of recent years, winning three out of the last four world championships. But they just haven’t been able to find their groove so far this week. A lacklustre day keeps them in 10th overall, yet still within striking distance of the podium if the Dutch can reignite the magic on the final day of fleet racing on Wednesday.

It’s probably fair to say that no one hit their groove today. With the wind blowing over the top of the 500-metre high Calanques mountains, it was extremely patchy and highly variable in wind strength. Somehow the Spanish team, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, managed to grind out three great finishes from a difficult afternoon, scores of 3,2,2 lifting them into an 11-point lead over Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove who maintain second overall. 

Former yellow bib wearers Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie (NZL) just couldn’t make sense of the fluky conditions and drop to third while a race win at the end of a strong day lifts Great Britain’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt to fourth overall. It’s very tight on points between a lot of teams, however, so Wednesday will be equally or even more stressful than today.

written by Andy Rice