In a heavy wind start to the second last Sailing World Cup event before the Olympic Games, Northern Ireland 49er duo Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern lie 17th in a fleet of 40–boats in Hyeres, France this evening.
After a gold medal in Palma at the start of this month but silver fleet racing at the European Championships a fortnight later, the Belfast Lough pairing are aiming for some more consistency this week and a performance that might bring them back to the silver medals they won on the French south coast this time two years ago.
So far it eludes them. In the first three races today, they scored 33, 22 and 7 but conditions have been described as 'survival' with plenty of capsizes. There are a possible nine races left to sai before the all important medal race this Sunday.
On Tuesday, 49er kings Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) could be seen meticulously practicing their tacking and gybing in huge breeze. The fluid, continuous motions that they rehearsed on Tuesday paid dividends as they took to the top of the table after three 49er races.
A bullet and a third was the ideal start but it could have been much better as Tuke explained, "We sailed the first two races well and 99% of the third race but we capsized right at the finish which is a bit of a pain. All in all, not a bad start.”
Burling and Tuke are on a run of 25 consecutive regatta victories, remaining unbeaten in the Rio 2016 quad. As a result, they are rightly labelled as favourites for Rio 2016 gold and with 100 days to go until the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, their run will count for nothing if they don't take gold.
"It is exciting, 100 days to go. I saw that [World Sailing's 100 Days to Go video] this morning on social media. It's a good little landmark but for us, it's business as usual and what we've been preparing for, for the last four years. We're here at the World Cup event to win but Rio in 100 days' time is fully on our mind and we're just looking to get better.”
Their unbeaten run indicates pure perfection so how can they get better? "Well we could have been better today by not capsizing,” Tuke said through a smile.
"There's still a lot of things that we can do better and we're just going to look at those things, at the big picture in Rio and concentrate on getting better. Since we've been focusing on improving, the results have spoken for themselves.”
It is early days in the 49er and the Kiwis lead only stands at one point over Will and Sam Phillips of Australia but if they keep looking to improve then it's going to take a special performance to overhaul them.
Racing this morning is scheduled to start at 11:00 local time and the 49erFX and Nacra 17 fleets will catch up on their missed races. -- Daniel Smith, World Sailing
Top three by class:
2.4 m
1. Matthew Bugg, AUS
2. Antonio Squizzato, ITA
3. Bjornar Erikstad, NOR
470 Men
1. Mathew Belcher / William Ryan, AUS
2. Luke Patience / Chris Grube, GBR
3. Sime Fantela / Igor Marenic, CRO
470 Women
1. Jo Aleh / Polly Powrie, NZL
2. Agnieszka Skrzypulec / Irmina Mrozek Gliszczynska, POL
3. Fernanda Oliveira / Ana Luiza Barbachan, BRA
49er
1. Peter Burling / Blair Tuke, NZL
2. William Phillips / Sam Phillips, AUS
3. John Pink / Stuart Bithell, GBR
49erFX Women - No results
Finn
1. Josh Junior, NZL
2. Caleb Paine, USA
3. Oliver Tweddell, AUS
Laser
1. Phlipp Buhl, GER
2. Matthew Wearn, AUS
3. Jean Baptiste Bernaz, FRA
Laser Radial Women
1. Evi Van Acker, BEL
2. Veronika Kozelska Fenclova, CZE
3. Alison Young, GBR
Nacra 17
1. Moana Vaireaux / Manon Audinet, FRA
2. Fernando Echavarri / Tara Pacheco van Rijnsoever, ESP
3. Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders, NZL
RS:X Men
1. Pawel Tarnowski, POL
2. Joao Rodrigues, POR
3. Thomas Goyard, FRA
RS:X Women
1. Helene Noesmoen, FRA
2. Maja Dziarnowska, POL
3. Zofia Nocceti-Klepacka, POL
Sonar
1. Hannah Stodel / John Robertson / Steve Thomas, GBR
2. Bruno Jourdren / Eric Flageul / Nicolas Vimont-Vicary, FRA
3. Aleksander Wang-Hansen / Marie Solberg / Per Eugen Kristiansen, NOR
