MADRID, 7 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The bay of Palma dressed in its best finery this Thursday on the fourth day of the 51st Princesa Sofía Mallorca, an unprecedented combination of wind and sun in the first half of the championship that allowed an intense regatta session to be completed in all classes.
Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman continue to lead the 470 Mixed class, Pilar Lamadrid moves up to third in iQFOiL Women, and Diego Botin and Florian Trittel move within a point of the 49er leader. Meanwhile, Gisela Pulido, ninth in Formula Kite Women, completes the Spanish team in the disputed ‘Top 10’.
The date in Palma is now reaching its decisive moment with the contenders for the title taking positions in the ten classes, rushing the options to enter the Medal Race on Saturday. After a few days of cold and rain, the combination of gradient and thermal winds presented intensities of 12-15 knots in the morning and 15-20 in the afternoon, perfect conditions for the sailing show.
In the 470 Mixed, Xammar and Brugman did not give up and defended their leadership despite adding their weakest partials of the week today (4+5). Meanwhile, in the 49er, a single point separates the Polish leaders Mikolaj Staniul/Jakub Sztorch from the triple tie between their American, French and Spanish rivals Diego Botín/Florian Trittel.
The 49erFX Top 25 completed four trials in their first final day and the Dutch Odile Van Aanholt/Annete Duetz remain at the front of the provisional. Patricia Suárez and María Cantero, the best ranked Spaniards, dropped four places and are now fourteenth.
In addition, in Olympic windsurfing, Pilar Lamadrid from Seville was the best of the day in iQFOiL Women, chaining two consecutive victories that allowed her to dream of reaching the lead. In iQFOiL Men, the five rounds of the day saw Britain’s Andrew Brown take the provisional lead from Dutchman Luuc Van Opzeeland. Tomás Vieito from Vigo is nineteenth.
Gisela Pulido continues to be the best asset of the Spanish squad in the new Formula Kite Women class, among the top ten in the category, and in the men’s class, Frenchman Theo De Ramecourt gives no choice. In addition, the Olympic champions in the Nacra 17 class, the Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, escape with the leadership.
In ILCA 7, the British Michael Beckett managed to defend his leadership despite an irregular day (14-2), and in ILCA 6, the Canadian Sarah Douglas has the strongest leadership of the entire fleet. The weather forecast for the fifth day of competition anticipates a new ideal session for sailing.