By Alexander Smith
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) -France fought back to lead the women’s skiffs from the Dutch and Swedes on Wednesday, while Spain’s men held onto their lead over the ‘McKiwis’ and Ireland as 10 crews in each event qualified for finely-poised Olympic medal race deciders.
Shifty winds meant another testing afternoon on a glistening Mediterranean for the women’s and men’s skiffs, with 2024’s Games now over for half the fleets of 20.
“It was a critical day, with the same winds as yesterday. Quite unstable with … a lot of gusts. We can be proud to be on top tonight,” said French women’s crew Charline Picon.
For the Dutch duo, the plan for the medal race is “just go all in”, said crew Annette Duetz.
Points are awarded based on finishing position in sailing, with the crew with the lowest cumulative score winning. In the medal race, the points are doubled and the result cannot be used as the one “discard” teams are allowed.
Five of the women’s crews, the leading trio plus Norway and Germany, could end up taking gold because points are so tight.
“This is what we came for to fight for a medal,” said Marie Roenningen, the Norwegian crew. “We’ll just take what comes tomorrow and do our best,” her helm Helene Naess added.
Spain’s SailGP winners Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, riding a streak of form, held on despite a strong first race of the day from the New Zealand pair of Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie and a second in the final race from Irish duo Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove.
Earlier, the debut women’s windsurfing marathon was abandoned as the wind faded during a gruelling hour.
After a dramatic start, where a power boat whizzed across the front of the fleet to signal the off, the race developed into a slow slog, with the windsurfers dropping off the foils and having to ‘pump’ their sails to propel themselves.
Eventually, after Israel’s Sharon Kantor had led for most of the legs, an official boat sped in front of the fleet flying the flag signalling the race was over.
Britain’s Emma Wilson topped the table at the end of the day, with Kantor in second as officials try to work through as many races as possible before the windsurfing enters its quarter, semi and final stages on Friday.
Australia’s Grae Morris led the men’s windsurfers at the end of a long afternoon out on the water, just ahead of Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski and Israel’s Tom Reuveny.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Christian Radnedge, Clare Fallon and Toby Davis)
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