With the win, Bekking’s Brunel is just three points off the lead, meaning the final two European legs will be more important than ever. Although Brunel sits in third place this morning, the Dutch entry is riding a wave of momentum.

Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, day 7 on board Brunel. Peter Burling at the helm. 25 May, 2018.

Since the team hit a low point at the conclusion of Leg 6 after arriving in Auckland with a sixth-place finish, Bekking and crew have posted a 1-2-1 scoreline, including important wins on the final two double-point scoring legs, to move from also-ran status on the leaderboard to holding down a firm grip on a podium position with an eye on the top spot.

“We’re very happy with the result – to beat the two red boats (Dongfeng and Mapfre) was the objective,” Bekking said after crossing the finish line. “Winning of course is nice, as well as to get the bonus point and then a nice fight to beat AkzoNobel in the end as well, so we’re a happy team.

“But the aim is to keep looking forward. We’ve closed the gap to Mapfre and Dongfeng and victory remains our main objective.”

To earn the leg win, Bekking had to fend off fellow Dutch skipper Simeon Tienpont’s team AkzoNobel, who had held a nominal lead of a few hundred meters just hours before the finish.

But in the strong currents and light winds of the Bristol Channel, Bekking and his crew found a way to claw back in front and then protected over the final miles to take the win by just 4 minutes and 05 seconds over team AkzoNobel.

Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, arrivals. 29 May, 2018.

For Tienpont’s AkzoNobel, Leg 9 will be long remembered for the amazing record-breaking effort the team made in setting a new standard for 24-hour distance run in the Volvo Ocean Race.

On Friday, in ideal conditions, the team AkzoNobel crew obliterated the previous race record set in a Volvo Ocean 70 by Ericsson 4 in 2008. The new mark is a 602.51 nautical mile, 24-hour run.

“This was an incredible race,” Tienpont said from on board at the finish line. “I’m unbelievably proud of the crew. We kept pushing all the way to the finish line and we’re happy with second place.

“We enjoyed setting a record that hopefully will be hard to beat. It’s been a leg full of emotions and we’re looking forward to the last two legs. We’ve done unbelievably well since Melbourne. From there onwards we’ve scored more points than Mapfre and Dongfeng. So the confidence is there and as a crew we’re enjoying it so much. We’ll just keep fighting and do what we did on this leg.”

Dongfeng Race Team skipper Charles Caudrelier has elevated his team to the top of the race leaderboard for the second time since the start of the race. With a sixth podium finish the most consistent team in the race controls its own destiny at the head of the fleet.

“It’s nice, but it’s a very small lead to Mapfre and now Brunel as well who are making a fantastic comeback,” Caudrelier said dockside after the finish. “It’s going to be interesting for fans to follow as the race is far from finished. The level is very even and it’s a big fight for every place… we would have preferred an easier finish.”

While Brunel has been ascendant on the last three legs and Dongfeng consistently among the leaders, MAPFRE roared out to a fast start in the opening legs but has struggled of late.

Even on the recent leg into Newport, which was scored a win, the Spanish team trailed for nearly all of the leg, making a miraculous comeback from fifth to first in the final 24 hours. The team will need to regain its early form if it is to make one more comeback and win the race.

“It hasn’t been an easy leg for us. It’s been painful from day one and we never could catch up,” said skipper Xabi Fernández. “But looking forward we feel confident. Hopefully we can start well and fight boat to boat over the next two legs.”

Scoring a fourth-place finish on the leg was Charlie Enright’s Vestas 11th Hour Racing. The team has prided itself on its podium finishes, but this leg marks its worst result across the finish line in the race.

However, having missed three crucial legs in the middle of the race, the team’s position on the overall leaderboard is all but locked in at fifth place.

“It was a disappointing leg from a results standpoint, but that doesn’t take away from what was a good crossing for the team,” Enright said. “We’ve overcome a lot more than just a bad result in this race and now we have two legs left to put our best foot forward and end on a good note.”

Volvo Ocean Race Projected Leaderboard after Leg 9

1. Dongfeng Race Team – 60 points
2. MAPFRE – 59 points
3. Team Brunel – 57 points
4. Team AkzoNobel – 48 points
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 36 points
6. SHK / Scallywag – 29 points
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic – 26 points

The post Team Brunel Continues Late Charge to the VOR Podium appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

On the track at the Olympic stadium, Ethiopian runner Almaz Ayana ran 10,000m to a gold medal at world-record speed. An hour away, up the coast of Rio de Janeiro, another speedster was getting to work. Well, two: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, New Zealand’s 49er kings, were zipping up the Pao de Acucar course, with seemingly unmatchable in boatspeed.

Competitors remark time and again on the Kiwi’s boatspeed. They consistently posted the highest speed in the fleet, save for the first beats of each race. Burling and Tuke do struggle with starts, but their ability to catch and pass anyone who happens to start in front of them is undeniable.

When asked how they consistently sailed a quarter to half a knot faster than their competition on the same tack, Burling said that their key is momentum, to get the skiff going fast and flat and ride the speed from there. “We kept putting the boat in the good breeze,” says Burling. “That was the difference today, who could get into the puff, put the bow down and go fast.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

They were nearly beaten in the Olympic opening race when they called a shift wrong in the second beat, allowing the Danish team, Jonas Warrer and Christian Peter Lubeck, to sneak past them. The triumph for the Danes was short-lived, as they failed to go through the final gate, had to douse their kite and retrace their steps, and in the process lost seven boats, including Burling and Tuke. The New Zealand team blasted by and took the win by 25 seconds over the Japanese team, Yukio Makino and Kenji Takahashi. In the second race, they increased their margin, beating Ireland’s Ryan Seaton and Matthew Mcgovern by 42 seconds.

The Kiwis walked away from the day with two bullets, an excellent start to the first of twelve scheduled races. The fleet is now behind in races as there were three scheduled for today, but a postponement made it impossible to get a third start before sunset. It’s unlikely the missed race will be made up, as according to the sailing instructions there need only to be six races in the class prior to the medal race. The 49ers have three more days of scheduled racing before the medal race.

Burling and Tuke’s biggest potential rivals, Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, struggled. “We certainly didn’t lose the event, but we haven’t set the world on fire yet,” says Outteridge. “Both races, we missed the best spots and we were in the pack. We were never able to get back up into those lead groups. Our strategy was not to risk much on the first day, and those races required a bit of risk at times.”

It’s still early days for the 49er, but there’s no denying the intimidation factor that Burling and Tuke now have on their side after two wins. They can only hope to emulate the performance that the Netherland’s Dorian Van Rijsselberghe put on on the RS:X course. Pending any protests or penalties, and his completion of the medal race in any place, Van Rijsselberghe has secured his second consecutive gold medal in the RS:X. Right behind him is Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey who, under the same circumstances as Van Rijsselberghe, will get the silver medal.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

With seven bullets over twelve races, Van Rijsselberghe’s worst result in the preliminary races was a sixth. Dempsey won three races. Most of the RS:X races were in light air and shifty breeze, making tactics the name of the game. “It’s not a matter of luck,” says Van Rijsselberghe of his impressive results. “It’s a matter of seeing the conditions the best and taking the chance to go for it.” The bronze medal in the fleet is still undecided, as are all medals in the women’s RS:X fleet. Both medal races will be contested on Sunday.

For the women’s skiff, today was not only their first race but their Olympic debut. The Canadians, Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd, came out on top. “These conditions are right in our wheelhouse,” says Rafuse. “We know we can throw the boat wherever we want. This is definitely our best start to a regatta.”

The Lasers and Radials had their second to last day of preliminary racing, but in both classes there are no safe bets for medals yet. Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom has secured the lead in the Radials with her consistent high-fleet finishes, but London gold medalist Lily Xu, London silver medalist Marit Bouwmeester and Ireland’s Annalise Murphy are within striking distance. London bronze medallist and fleet favorite, Evi Van Acker, from Belgium has struggled, due to what her coaches say is a gastrointestinal illness. Responses for comment were not returned, but a team representative did elude to pollution as a possible cause of Van Acker’s illness in a Reuters report.

In the Laser fleet, Croatia’s Tonci Stipanović maintained his lead, but just, over Brazil’s Robert Scheidt who made an incredible comeback in the first race of the day, climbing from 31st to 4th. Scheidt is looking to break the record for most Olympic sailing medals won by an individual, and with two races to go until the medal race, he’s given himself a fair shot. He currently has five, tied with countryman Torben Grael and Great Britain’s Ben Ainsle.

On the 470 courses, favorites Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic maintained their lead, but only just. Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan are only two points behind, but with a comfortable lead on the rest of the fleet. On the women’s side, New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie lost their hold of the lead to Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, from Great Britain. Aleh and Powrie now sit in 6th.

The Finn and Nacra sailors enjoyed a reserve day off.

World Sailing’s results website seems to have worked out it’s kinks. Full results are available at sailing.org.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

In total, 12 athletes led their nation around the Macarana stadium for the eyes of the world to witness.

But who are sailing’s flag bearers and where do they come from? Read up on a star studded cast of athletes below:

Sofia Bekatorou – Greece

Rio 2016 will be Sofia Bekatorou’s fourth Olympic Games as an athlete. A four-time World Champion in the 470, a two-person dinghy, Bekatorou won gold at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in the same event with Emilia Tsoulfa. Four years later, she won bronze in the Yngling, a three-person keelboat, at Beijing 2008.

In addition, she is also a two-time World Sailor of the Year recipient.

At Rio 2016, she will compete in the Nacra 17, a Mixed Multihull, with Michalis Pateniotis.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Nicole Van der Velden – Aruba

Nicole van der Velden was the first Aruban athlete to qualify the nation to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The 21-year-old sailed at the inaugural Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. At Rio 2016 she will be sailing in the Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17) with Thijs Visser.

Pavlos Kontides – Cyprus

Pavlos Kontides won his nations first ever Olympic medal at London 2012, a silver in the Laser class, a one-person dinghy. Overnight he became a national sensation and superstar. He is considered one of the top contenders in the Laser and Rio 2016 will be his third Olympic Games following a 13th place finish at Beijing 2008.

Karl Martin Rammo – Estonia

Karl Martin Rammo follows in the footsteps of his compatriot Tonu Toniste by becoming the second Olympic sailor to carry the Estonian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. The 27-year-old is a consistent performer on the Olympic sailing circuit and will be fighting at the front of the Laser pack at Rio 2016.

Tuuli Petaja-Siren – Finland

Tuuli Petaja-Siren snapped up a silver medal in the Women’s Windsurfing (RS:X) event at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Considered an outsider before the event, Petaja-Siren peaked when it mattered on the shores of Weymouth and Portland, Great Britain.

For her achievements, Petaja-Siren was named Finnish Sports Athlete of the Year for 2012.

Rio 2016 will be the 32-year-olds third Olympic Games.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – New Zealand

49er sailors, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have been unstoppable since they won silver at London 2012, winning 27 regattas in a row. Their only defeat in the Rio 2016 quad came at the 2016 South American Championships in Rio de Janeiro where they finished third. They have won all four World Championships and will be firm favorites in Rio.

Burling was named as the official flag bearer but officialdom aside, the pair will co-captain the New Zealand Olympic Team and walk around the stadium as a team.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Vasilij Zbogar – Slovenia

Rio 2016 will be Vasilij Zbogar’s fifth Olympic Games. The Slovenian won his first Olympic medal at Athens 2004, a bronze and followed it up with a silver at Beijing 2008 in the Laser class. He sailed the Finn Men’s Heavyweight Dinghy, the Finn, at London 2012 and will sail it again in Rio.

Gintare Scheidt – Lithuania

Gintare Scheidt won silver at Beijing 2008 in the Laser Radial, narrowly missing out on gold. In the build-up to London 2012 she won the Laser Radial World Championship title in Boltenhagen, Germany. She finished sixth at London 2012.

Wife of Brazilian sailing legend, Robert Scheidt, Gintare won gold at the 2015 Olympic Test Event and will be considered a serious contender in Rio.

Joao Rodrigues – Portugal

Windsurfer Joao Rodrigues has competed at six Olympic Games and at 44-years-old he has signified that Rio 2016 will be his final Olympic Games. Over his career Rodrigues has amassed more than 50 medals in international competition. His best Olympic result was at Athens 2004, where he finished sixth in the Mistral event.

Rodrigues started sailing at the age of nine and throughout his sporting career, he also completed a degree in mechanical engineering.

In 2013, Rodrigues was awarded the Medal of Merit for his services to Olympism but the Portuguese National Olympic Committee.

Rodney Govinden – Seychelles

Rodney Govinden is one of three sailors from Seychelles competing at Rio 2016 and will race in the Laser. He qualified at the African qualification regatta and his hero is teammate Allen Julie who will make his fifth Olympic appearance at Rio 2016. Govinden won the Seychelles Sportsman of the Year in 2015 for qualifying his nation to Rio 2016 and winning gold and silver medals at the 2015 Indian Ocean Island Games.

Dolores Moreira – Uruguay

One of sailing’s youngest competitors, Dolores Moreira was the first Uruguayan qualifier for Rio 2016, booking her spot on the start line after a silver medal in the Laser Radial at the Pan American Games in 2015.

Moreira, nickname Lola, will be the youngest flag bearer in Uruguay’s history. She competed at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

Cy Thompson – U.S. Virgin Islands

Cy Thompson of the U.S. Virgin Islands was one of the first athletes from his nation to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, doing it at the first opportunity available, the 2014 World Championships in Santander, Spain. Rio 2016 will be Thompson’s second Olympic Games after he finished 25th at London 2012.

The post Meet the Olympic Flag-Bearing Sailors appeared first on Sailing World.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand will enter the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition as overwhelming favourites to conquer in the Men’s Skiff (49er) having set a world class standard after London 2012.

Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen defeated the Kiwis at London 2012 but since then, the Kiwis have completely dominated. Throughout the four-year cycle the pair won 27 regattas in a row, including four world titles and two Olympic test event golds.

Their only defeat leading up to Rio 2016 came at the hands of the Australians at the recent South American Championships and the narrative is set for a Trans-Tasman fight for supremacy.

The Australian and Kiwi teams will form part of a 20-boat fleet that will start racing on Friday 12 August at 13:00 on the Pao de Acucar racing area and in the words of Jensen, there will be ‘no love lost’ on the water come race day.

Training partners leading up to London 2012, the Australians and Kiwis separated their campaigns afterwards, remaining good friends, and have been focusing on a variety of projects within sailing over the last four years.

Jensen explained, “We’ve known the Kiwis for quite a while. We’ve been spending a lot of time with the America’s Cup but they have as well. They have had the upper hand over the last four years and we’ve been working really hard to close that gap.”

And close the gap they did by winning the South American Championships. Jensen continued, “It was good to finally break the streak of the Kiwis. We’ve felt like we’ve been improving over the last year and it’s good to have some validation that we’re closing the gap. I hope we can continue that way and bring home a good result for the Games. On shore we are still good friends, joke around, have a chat and stuff but there’s no love lost between us on the water.”

Outteridge added, “This time the Kiwi guys have been doing a full on four-year campaign and they won every event for pretty much the whole four years. We are coming in more of an underdog this time rather than the favourites, which I think is pretty nice considering how busy we have been with all of our America’s Cup commitments.”

Burling and Tuke’s dominance is one of the most impressive ever witnessed in Olympic sailing and their win streak one of the longest in all Olympic sports building up to Rio 2016. But speak to the Kiwis and they view each win the same as they only have their eyes on one prize, the gold medal at an Olympic Games.

“Everything we’ve been doing has been about this moment and we’ve had some good results over the last few years,” said Tuke. “But we’ve always said it’s all about Rio. Now it’s here and it’s time to put down a good performance.”

Burling added, “Our last four years has been preparing for Rio and being in the best shape we can be. I’m really happy where we are.”

Rarely drawn into comparisons with the Australians and remaining humble and cautious of the competitive fleet, the Kiwis have left no stone unturned and certainly won’t be phased by their favourites tag.

Away from the Trans-Tasman neighbours, Beijing 2008 49er gold medallist Jonas Warrer returns to the Olympic fold after missing out on selection at London 2012. Sailing with Christian Peter Lubeck, Warrer will be competing at the Olympic Games again after an eight-year wait and knows exactly what he wants, “A medal,” he exclaimed. “Having missed London 2012, it was a big disappointment. It took a while to get over it. But that is also part of the charm, that only one boat from each country goes.

“The Olympics, it’s the biggest. Everybody has it as their top priority and sailing in Rio is special so anything can happen. Our sailing and progression in 2016 gives us confidence.”

Joining them in the fleet will be Spain’s rising stars Diego Botin and Iago Lopez Marra. The young Spaniards won Sailing World Cup Miami at the turn of the year and will make their Olympic debut in Rio.

Further contenders include, Austria’s Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch, who will be making their fourth Olympic appearance, Ireland’s Ryan Seaton and Matthew McGovern, Argentina’s Klaus and Yago Lange, Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel and Portugal’s Jorge Lima and Jose Costa.

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Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won every 49er Regatta they’ve sailed in since the 2012 Olympics — except for one. In some, like Keil Week in June, they go into the medal race with an unassailable lead. In others, they get themselves into a more vulnerable position, but in the end they still come out at the top of the pile. At the 49er South American Championships, July 13-14 2016, they finally fell from the top, finishing third behind Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, and Poland’s Lukasz Przybytek and Pawel Kolodzinski.

The break of their streak comes at an interesting time for the class. They’re now going into the big finale of their Rio campaign without the added weight of “undefeated” on their shoulders. On the other hand, they’ve now revealed they are truly beatable, which may embolden some of their competition, whom Austrian 49er crew Nikolas Resch says had all but given up on hopes of Rio gold.

“Sailing is an imperfect sport,” says Resch. “The advantage they had was that people have given up on trying to beat them. It’s not the right attitude. You should always try, at least. The Olympics is it’s own event.”

Resch says that Burling and Tuke’s biggest strengths are their speed and their ability to point higher than the fleet. “Even if they have a bad start, they’ll usually finish at the top,” says Resch. “They have an easy time moving through the fleet and their consistency of high finishes is has certainly been their strength, in the end.”

Team Nickomania, as Resch and teammate Nico Delle Karth call themselves, are ranked second in the 49er World Sailing rankings, behind Burling and Tuke. They haven’t given up on the gold in Rio just yet, but with Burling and Tuke’s proven track record of success, Resch says it’s really the Kiwi’s medal to lose.

“There’s so much pressure on them, and the venue is extremely challenging,” says Resch. “It all comes down to four days in the Olympic regatta, and there may not be all that many races. Each race will be vital, and mistakes will be costly.”

It’s here that Resch says Burling and Tuke may have a chink in their armor. “They sometimes struggle with starts,” says Resch. “In Rio, one side of the course is often so favored that even with their excellent boat speed, they wouldn’t be able to climb up the leader board. In a strong fleet like this, the starts are challenging and that could be an advantage that we will have over them.”

Being second to New Zealand in the rankings is no small feat in itself. The international 49er fleet is deeply talented. “There are nine or ten teams in this class that could medal in the Games,” says Resch. “So many sailors in this fleet sail in the America’s Cup and in other highly competitive fleets that it really speaks for itself as far as the competitiveness.”

Of course, Resch admits, every Olympic sailor will say his class is the strongest and most competitive. “It’s not like we, as second in the world rankings, had it easy to get there and stay there,” he says. “Our focus will be on achieving any medal, rather than focusing on winning the gold medal. In this class, that will be a huge feat.”

“The key is to perform consistently enough to stay ahead of the other teams, and hope Pete and Blair make some mistakes that help us move up as well,” says Resch. “If they do, it’s vital to be right behind them to be able to take advantage.”

It was the final event before Rio 2016 where Burling and Tuke finally fell, making a handful of small mistakes that landed them with a higher-than-normal scorecard, including one thrown-out 15th place finish, leaving them with two fourths, a seventh and an eighth weighing them down.

With three weeks to go before the Games, Burling and Tuke will still have the target on their backs as the team to beat in the men’s high performance skiff. The target now, though, seems a little closer for some.

For full results, visit SIVRio.com.br

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