A dramatic turnaround - from an Irish perspective at least - saw Howth’s Aoife Hopkins move up to 32nd place in the 2020 Laser Radial Senior European Radial Championships in Poland today to overhaul Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy by a single place. Eve McMahon is in 40.
Three races were added to scores on Women’s Gold and Silver fleets but an overall disappointing one for Murphy dropping some 15 places overall from 18th on Sunday.
Racing started with 6-8 knots breeze from land on this second day of the Final series, raising then up to 12 knots for the last races.
It’s been a tricky competition with big variations in the offshore wind, and this shows in the high scores of the women’s Laser Radials but there is no mistaking the consistency of the top five who are among Murphy’s main rivals for Gold at next year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
The women’s fleet has two more races tomorrow that is forecast to be the breeziest of the series, so standby to see Ireland’s 'Breeze Queen' make an impact on Gdansk Bay in the final day's proceedings.
There has been some terrific sailing by the reigning 2019 European champion Anne Marie Rindom DEN (2-9-6), leading the championship from the beginning. She’s heading the fleet with 22 points after ten races and got a 20 points margin on second.
The second-placed sailor, however, is none other than the reigning 2020 World and 2016 Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester NED (55 DNC-4-1), who scored her first win today on this event and a 4th after waiting aside during the first race due to Yellow flags received yesterday. So nothing is definite and the Gold medal title remains open.
Sailing conditions will be different tomorrow, although both sailors are Masters in all of them.
Third place is now for ascendant Vasileia Karachaliou GRE (9-1-11) with 51 points, only 9 behind Marit.
“My goal for today was to try to be in the top 10 and then try to climb up from there. I was really happy to be able to come back from mid-fleet position in the last race today. It was another really hard day, happy that I manage to survive. Thoughts for tomorrow are to try to stay calm and warm for tomorrow’s last day of the championship” – Vasileia Karachaliou GRE
Local sailor Agata Barwinska POL (16-17-23) couldn’t repeat yesterday’s great performance, dropping from 2nd to 4th with 53 points. Svenja Weger GER (3-12-25) is fifth with 67.
Two points separate the next 4 sailors, ranked 6th to 9th on provisional European Top 10: Maud Jayet SUI –76–, Josefin Olsson SWE –76.2–, Ecem Guzel TUR –78– and Emma Plasschaert BEL –78–. Maxime Jonker NED wraps this list, sharing 87 points with Silvia Zennaro ITA on the 11th place.
Canadian sailor Sarah Douglas CAN is best non-European sailor, holding the 6th place overall with 72 units.
Results here