The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition
The men’s and women’s 470s lost their reserve day before their medal race due to schedule changes, but the wind gods gave them their own reserve day yesterday. Without a breath of wind, the 470s returned to shore with the standings unchanged, leaving the medal races to be contested today, alongside those of the skiff classes.
In the men’s 470, the top three are all but determined. The color of the medals, however, remain undetermined. Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marinec have lead the regatta from Day 1. They have consistently strong starts and upwind boatspeed that has put them in position to bring home the first Croatian gold medal in sailing. Nine points behind sit Greece’s Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis, who will have the most challenging medal race of the three contenders as they work to take the gold from Croatia while defending silver from Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan. Belcher and Ryan have nothing to lose, as they’ve secured a podium position. The only direction they can go is up. Expect to see these three teams very close to each other in the pre-start, with some match-racing tactics coming into play.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition
The women’s 470 fleet already has its champions — London 2012 silver medalists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark from Great Britain will win gold as long as they complete the race without penalties. They are 20 points ahead of New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, who bested the Brits in 2012 for London gold. Even with the Brit’s dominance, this will be the tightest race contested today. Aleh and Powrie are not secured any medals, with five other teams within striking distance of silver and one additional team able to win bronze. USA’s Annie Hager and Briana Provancha are 1 point behind the kiwis. The American 470 women are the USA’s final chance at a medal in Rio, as the men’s 470 team and both skiff teams are outside of podium position. The pressure may have been relieved by their teammate, Finn sailor Caleb Paine, bringing home a bronze medal on Tuesday, the first medal for the USA in sailing since 2008. Haeger and Provancha will have to defend their podium position from France’s Camille Lecointre and Hélène Defrance who are just 1 point behind them. If they also go on the offensive, they could steal the silver away from the Kiwis. Japan, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Brazil all have a chance at a podium position based on points today as well.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition
The men’s 49er skiff class also already has its gold medalists in New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. As expected, the Kiwis controlled the class through the entire quad, winning every 49er regatta they entered after London, until just a few weeks before the Games where they came third in the 49er South American Championship. There was no sign of any defeat when they arrived in Rio, starting the regatta off with two race wins and maintaining the overall lead from there. The kiwis are also teammates on 2017 America’s Cup challenger Emirates Team New Zealand, but have stepped back here and there from their roles on Emirates to focus on their 49er campaign.
Likewise, third-placed 49er team Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen are also America’s Cup challenger teammates, but on Artemis Racing. Australia’s Outteridge and Jensen have taken less time off from the AC campaign, and their results have shown it. They’re currently in third, behind Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel, and 10 points ahead of Great Britain’s Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Alain Sign. All three could win silver or bronze, and one will be left off the podium. Fletcher-Scott and Sign will have to have to finish at least five boats ahead of Australia to get on the podium.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition
The women’s 49erFX skiff has four possible medal contenders, and none of the podium places are secure. The top-three boats in this class are tied with 46 points each. Spain’s Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez and Berta Betanzos Moro are in the lead with the most first place finishes in the preliminary regatta, but Brazil’s Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze and Denmark’s Jena Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen also have 46 points, and New Zealand’s Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have 47. The rest of the fleet is too far out of contention. Grael and Kunze are the final medal hopes for Brazil in sailing.
The Kiwis have nothing to lose in the FX, so we can expect some aggressive tactics from them today. The rest of the top of the fleet will be simultaneously defending their podium place while watching the other two leaders in hopes of climbing up another step. Though the 470 women’s race will have more contenders, the medal race for the 49erFX will be the most exciting with the combination of speed and stakes sure to produce excellent races.
Live 2D and 3D tracking is available for all races at sailing.org.
Most medal races are broadcast or streamed. Check out our story How to Watch for information on each country’s broadcast rights.
