Irish 420 Crews Make Gold Fleet Cut at World Champs in San Remo

21st July 2016

Ireland's (55437) Cliodhna Ni Shuilleabhain and Niamh Doran had two top ten results yesterday Credit: Gerolamo Acquarone

On the last day of the qualifying series of the 2016 420 World Championships in Sanremo, Ireland's best results of the day were achieved by Cliodhna Ni Shuilleabhain and Niamh Doran with two top ten results ensuring their place in the Gold fleet. They join Gemma and Cara McDowell, who had a consistent day putting them in 12th overall.

In the under 17 fleet Geoff Power and James McCann also made the Gold fleet. Douglas Elmes and Colin O'Sullivan will sail in the Gold fleet of the Open event

There were very light winds again yesterday with sailing not getting going until after 3pm and the girls division racing continuing until 7pm.

The priority on race day 3 was to get the qualification stage wrapped up for the 420 Open and 420 Ladies fleets, and confirm the teams advancing to the gold and silver splits for the 6 race final series.

All fleets headed out to the race track for midday, but the weather gods had other plans. Postponement on the water, as another windless morning threatened the patience of the most resilient sailors. Eventually, the wind swung to the west, enabling racing to get underway soon after 1500 hours in a testing 6-8 knot breeze.

420 LADIES
All change in the leaderboard pegging in the 84 boat 420 Ladies, as Francesca Russo Cirillo/Alice Linussi accelerated through the fleet to take the overall lead. A masterclass of sailing from this pair, with wins in races 4 and 5, and a fourth in the final race of qualification in the blue fleet giving them a 2 point advantage over Maria Caba/Pilar Caba (ESP). Russo Cirillo is familiar with front of fleet pressure, as two years ago at the 2014 420 Worlds she won gold. Back then she was at the front of the boat, switching to helm last year.

Overnight leaders Julia Szmit/Hanna Dzik (POL) drop to third. A phenomenal performance from Spain’s Maria Bover Guerrero/Clara Llabrés, banked them two race wins in the yellow fleet, and a leaderboard climb to 4th, up from 9th this morning.

A first win in the bag of the series to Italy’s Veronica Ferraro/Giulia Ierardi pushes them up into 6th overall.

The gold fleet cut was for those finishing 42nd or above from the 6 race qualification series, with all teams below the cut-off now racing in silver. A 100% conversion rate for Ireland, with both of their Ladies teams advancing to gold.

For the rest of the nations, disappointment for some, as only the top 42 best performers now continue the battle for a chance at World Championship podium glory.

420 Ladies - Top 10 after 6 races
1. Francesca Russo Cirillo/Alice Linussi (ITA 55476) - 12 pts
2. Maria Caba/Pilar Caba (ESP 55687) - 14 pts
3. Julia Szmit/Hanna Dzik (POL 56008) - 16 pts
4. María Bover Guerrero/Clara Llabrés (ESP 54697) - 17 pts
5. Sofia Giondi/Giulia Gatta (ITA 55914) - 19 pts
6. Veronica Ferraro/Giulia Ierardi (ITA 56042) - 23 pts
7. Maria Vittoria Marchesini/Cecilia Fedel (ITA 55641) - 24 pts
8. Jessie Kampman/Léa Sibertin-Blanc (FRA 55896) - 25 pts
9. Souzana Bakatsia/Nikoletta Papageorgiou (GRE 55002) - 28 pts
10. Sofie Schöne/Line Johanna Thielemann (GER 56064) - 29 pts

420 OPEN
France’s Jim Vincent/Victor Mas edge into the lead by 3 points, leapfrogging overnight leaders, Theo Carayon/Erwan Lucas (FRA), who slip to second on a 1 point deficit. These two have consolidated their lead, holding a useful 9 points margin over the rest of the pack.

The renowned Portuguese brothers and Diogo Costa/Pedro Costa have stepped up, thrusting through into the top ten in third, in a significant climb of 11 places. They are the Portuguese 420 National Champions, for the second year.

Behind the top three teams, the scorecard is incredibly close, with just an 8 point margin between 4th through to 10th places.

The 55 gold fleet teams are now poised for final series racing, and set to take on their biggest challenge of the Championship so far, with all the top teams pitched against each other. Two races are scheduled on Thursday, with a 1000 hours start.

420 Open - Top 10 after 6 races
1. Jim Vincent/Victor Mas (FRA 55096) - 15 pts
2. Theo Carayon/Erwan Lucas (FRA 54834) - 16 pts
3. Diogo Costa/Pedro Costa (POR 55289) - 25 pts
4. Otto Henry/Sam Worrall (AUS 55157) - 35 pts
5. Wiley Rogers/Jack Parkin (USA 55162) - 37 pts
6. Enrique Luján/Pablo Luján (ESP 56077) - 37 pts
7. Fausto Cruz Peralta/Martin Arroyo Verdi (ARG 54842) - 37 pts
8. Luca Valentino/Giacomo Bandini (ITA 56024) - 40 pts
9. Vasilios Gourgiotis/Orestis Batsis (GRE 54484) - 41 pts
10. Maxime Pedron/Ange-Loup Stimbre (FRA 55881) - 43 pts

420 U17
Two races for the 68 team under-17 fleet, propelled Telis Athanasopoulos Yogo/Dimitris Tassios (GRE) into the lead. The Greeks effectively matched the performance of Violette Dorange/Camille Orion (FRA) today, as with the discard kicking in at race 5, both teams achieved scores of 1,4 - reversed across the two races.

The French pair, who led going into the day, are one of two girls teams now remaining inside the top 10 in this highly competitive fleet of 420 Class teams aged 16 and under.

Spain’s Eduard Ferrer/Carlos De Maqua break into the top 10, gearing up to third overall after discarding their radical 46th score from yesterday’s race 2, and building in promising results of 4,1 today.

A disaster of a performance from Carlotta Scodnik/Camilla Scodnik, who opened yesterday’s assault in 7th overall, but plummeted to 25th by the end of the day after two black flag (BFD) penalties for being over the starting line early. One BFD is discarded, but the other counts on their scorecard. They now have a mountain to climb to break back into the top 10.

Introduced in 2015, the under-17 division has attracted a whole new breed of young 420 teams to the Worlds, who are keen to race within their own age group. As with the 420 Open and Ladies fleets, strict quotas apply limiting the number of teams a nation can enter, to ensure only the best young sailors in the world qualify to compete at the 420 World Championships.

420 U17 - Top 10 after 5 races
1. Telis Athanasopoulos Yogo/Dimitris Tassios (GRE 56071) - 8 pts
2. Violette Dorange/Camille Orion (FRA 55959) - 9 pts
3. Eduard Ferrer/Carlos De Maqua (ESP 55980) - 15 pts
4. Enzo Balanger/Gaultier Tallieu (FRA 56030) - 17 pts
5. Luis Doreste/Julio Alonso (ESP 55539) - 28 pts
6. Aina Colom/Victoria Sisk (ESP 55987) - 31 pts
7. Alessandro Venini/Alessandro Bernardo (ITA 56046) - 35 pts
8. Tommaso Cilli/Bruno Mantero (ITA 56076) - 41 pts
9. Nick Zeltner/Till Seger (SUI 55553) - 43 pts
10. Giorgos Drosos/Nikolaos Giotopoulos (GRE 53456) - 49 pts

Racing on Thursday’s Championship day 4 will feature 2 races for the 420 Open and 420 Ladies fleets, in their first day of final series racing, and 3 races for the U17 fleet who continue a single series race format. First starts for all classes will be at 1000 hours.

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