Tomorrow the waters of Barcelona will be the scene of a heart-stopping Medal Race. Today the fleet of 42 Nacra 17 teams completed four races in order to decide the top 10 which will sail the grand finale on this spectacular catamaran. After two days without racing, the fifth day of the Europeans dawned with low clouds and no wind, so the sailors had to wait on shore for a bit. After 14h00, there was a south-easterly breeze of 5.5 knots, which gradually increased to 7 knots of wind speed for the last two races of the day.
The medal race will take place tomorrow and the score will be double. The rest of the teams (from eleventh onwards) will also sail a fleet race. The start for this fleet race is scheduled at 12h00, while the Medal Race begins at 13h00.
Runner-up Darren Bundock mentioned: “Today was quite tricky and a really difficult day for everyone I think. It has been a tough day, everything was really close. I’m really looking forwart to tomorrow. We could have more breeze so it’s going to be exciting”.
With twenty points at stake tomorrow in the Medal Race, everything is open. British Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves continue to lead the rankings, just three points ahead of Australian Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis, who are still aiming for the championship podium in the open category but not European title. In third place, and in European silver position, Danish Allan Norregaard and Annette Viborg , are eleven points behind the leaders. Mathematically Italians Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri also have a chance for the podium, 19 points behind the English.
Also in the battle for the podium are Austrians Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank and Spanish Fernando Echavarri and Tara Pacheco, fifth and sixth, respectively, and tied on points. They are eight points behind the provisional European bronze. Silver is still mathematically possible but very complicated for them: 16 points separates them from the second overall.
“We claimed the third position today after winning two races today so it has been a really good day for us. We still have a good chance for winning this regatta there is only a 10 point difference so anything could happen tomorrow”, highlighted Danish Allan Norregaard.
The prize giving ceremony is scheduled for Saturday at 15h00.
>> Overall results online on the Nacra17 Europeans 2015 event website
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* At the time of sending this press release there are two protests pending. One presented by Danish Lin Ea Cenholt and Christian Peter Lübeck against Iker Martínez and Julia Rita and another one between the two German teams.*
