Day 5 Analysis: Two mouthwatering Skiff finales for Thursday

Men’s Skiff: Seven in with a shout of Gold

With scores from the day of 15,12,6, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel might have felt a bit deflated with their performance. However, it was another chaotic day for pretty much everyone in the men’s 49er fleet, a day when it would be easy to lose your mind with all the unfairness being hurled at them by the fickle wind on the Bay of Marseille.

The Spanish emerge from the conclusion of 12 fleet races still wearing the yellow bibs, and with a 5-point edge over the Irish, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove. There were moments when Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie moved into the overall lead, such as when the McKiwis had won the first race of the session. In the last race the New Zealanders reached the first mark in 12th but then hit the mark and had to do a penalty turn which knocked them down five places. That could prove a critical loss of points, but then this week has been a story of ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ for all 20 teams in the Men’s Skiff.

Best performers of the day, and the only team to keep all their scores in the top 10, were Poland’s Dominik Buksak and Szymon Wierzbicki. This final day consistency lifts them to fifth, just behind the USA’s Ian Barrow and Hans Henken who are just four points off the podium.

No one has run away with the competition and there are at least four teams with a serious shot at gold and the top seven have a mathematical chance of taking the top prize. This is unheard of in Medal Races, where often the gold medal has been wrapped up with a race to spare. Hard to imagine but even the Chinese – Zaiding Wen and Tian Liu – who snuck through in 10th place, could grab a bronze if all the stars were to align. 

Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken came to the Games as three-time World Champions and favourites for the gold medal in the 49er. The Dutch won one of today’s races comfortably but some lacklustre finishes in the other races saw them miss the Medal Race by a single point. Although… there was another late-night twist to the story as the Chinese 49er team were disqualified after failing a measurement check, which sees the Dutch reinstated into 10th place and a spot in the Medal Race.

Women’s Skiff: All down to the last day

Best performers from the final day of Women’s Skiff racing were the reigning, and now outgoing, Olympic Champions. Scoring 4,9,2 reminds us that Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze are a class act, and it pulls them up to eighth overall, earning them a spot in the medal race. However, the prospect of a medal is beyond the Brazilians on this occasion. 

All of the top five still have a chance at the gold medal, although for Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille of Germany it would be a very long shot indeed. Helene Naess and Marie Ronningen have really hit their stride over the past couple of days and the Norwegians’ scores of 2,5,8 from Wednesday move them to fourth place and just two points behind Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler.

The Swedes used their incredible boat speed to win two of today’s races before faltering in the last with a 17th. If it’s blowing 10 knots or more for the Medal Race then this might be the boost the Swedes need to take on the two frontrunners. Between France’s Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon versus Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz of The Netherlands, it’s a straight who-beats-who battle, But with the others just behind them, there’s no room for match racing in the Medal Race. 

Men’s Windsurfing: Morris up to first

After leading the Men’s Windsurfing, Luuc van Opzeeland suffered a horrible day including a disqualification from Race 8 along with some late-afternoon scores outside the top 10. The Dutchman drops to fourth overall, although so close are the points he’s still only six points behind new leader from Australia, Grae Morris. Pawel Tarnowski from Poland is enjoying a solid series to maintain second place, a point behind Morris and two points in front of Israel’s Tom Reuveny. Reigning World Champion Nicolo Renna is back in seventh, but the Italian has an uncanny knack of saving his best for last.

Women’s Windsurfing: Wilson continues to dominate

The Marathon Race started out beautifully across the Bay of Marseille, but when Sharon Kantor led the fleet towards the Île d’If, the breeze started to die and the iQFOiL windsurfers fell off their foils. Although the Israeli managed to get back up and foiling once through the lee of the island, the breeze was beginning to switch off on that side of the Bay. The race was eventually abandoned, losing Kantor some valuable points in her bid to catch up Emma Wilson who had struggled to get a good launch out of the rabbit start. 

Once back to the short-course racing Wilson was back on winning form. The British rider holds a 19-point buffer over Kantor with Italy’s Marta Maggetti holding a clear third place.

written by Andy Rice