The Olympic qualifying favorites, Sinem Kurtbay and Janne Jarvine (FIN) moved into 6th place overall and now lead the remaining countries aiming for the final Tokyo berth. They scored a 3, 10, 10 on the day to continue a solid run of middling results. Kurtbay and Jarvine were the top placed team not to earn qualification from Auckland Worlds 2019, and are looking to earn their place now.
The chase for qualification is far from over, with Paschalidis and Papadopoulou (GRE) only four points behind the Fins. Pschalidis is a veteran of the Tornado fleet and has decades of Olympic and Catamaran experience, Only late 2018 did he team up with the youthful Papadopoulou and begin sailing the Nacra 17, with their first international competition being the 2020 Worlds in Geelong. They already are sailing at a very high level, with great speed and will continue to push in the remaining three days of competition.
Igor Marenic and Marija Andela (CRO) had their best day of racing so far, moving to 14 points behind the Fins with a 5, 6, 9. Marenic is the 470 gold medalist from Rio and got into the Nacra 17 quite late in this quadrennial. Clearly the teams are gaining skills quickly and are still aiming at Tokyo.
At the front of the pack are three gold medal hopefuls for Tokyo, with Pacheco and Trittel of ESP in the overall lead after day 3. Follow the rest of the regatta and the 49er event happening simultaneously from Lanzarote via the links. Remember to tune in for the live broadcast medal race on the 26th.
23.03.2021 by Ben Remocker
