Morning Report: Two 470 Medal Races to round off Tokyo

It’s the final day of the Sailing competition in Enoshima, and at last it’s time for the 470 fleets to contest their Medal Races.

470 Men

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) have all but won their gold medal, after completing the Opening Series of the 470 Men with a 20-point advantage over their closest rivals. Reigning World Champions Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) sailed impressively yesterday to move up into second place overall. The Swedes are now four points ahead of Jordi Xammar and Nico Rodriguez (ESP) in third.

In with a chance of upsetting the current podium are New Zealand’s Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox (NZL), known to be fast in lights wind, and Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Chris Grube a few points further back in fifth.

Today’s race will be a bittersweet moment for Belcher, the all-time greatest 470 sailor as he bows out of the class. “At the moment Will and I, we’re just having a good time and sailing really well and having a few laughs,” he said. “I think that’s probably helped us a lot. We obviously enjoy our friendship and partnership and our teamwork.” The Aussies could treat today as a victory lap but they’re still looking to put on a show. “For the Medal Race, we’re going to race it properly.”

Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre (GBR) start the Medal Race with a 14-point advantage over the French Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz. Four points back in third are Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar (POL), so the French might be more concerned about defending silver than chasing Great Britain for gold. Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO) are nine points out of bronze, closely followed by a trio of teams with an outside shot at the podium – Brazil, Switzerland and Japan. What a story that would be, if Japan could take the last medal from the last event of this Olympic Regatta. The stars will have to align perfectly for Ai Kondo and Miho Yoshioka to get to bronze, but we’ve seen all kinds of impossibilities come true in the past few days of enthralling Medal Races. If Hannah Mills wins gold today, along with silver from London 2012 and gold from Rio 2016 it will make her the most successful ever female sailor. Alessandra Sensini has won more, but the Italian windsurfer won just one gold, along with a silver and two bronze medals. If Eilidh McIntyre wins gold, she will match the achievement of her father Mike McIntyre who won Star gold in 1988.

Weather

• Mostly sunny with no chance of thunderstorm.
• Gradient winds S 5-10kt.
• Race Area surface wind, S-SSW less than 7kt until 11LT,  S-SSW 7-8kt from 12LT,  S-SSW 7-9kt from 14LT,  S-SSW 7-8kt from 17LT.
• Sea state: 0.5 m wave height.

Schedule

Medal Races

Enoshima Course

1430 JST  470 Men
1530 JST 470 Women

Words by Andy Rice – World Sailing
Photography by Sailing Energy / World Sailing