Challenging day at the 470 European Championship

Day 3 of the 470 European Championship in Vilamoura develops with a southerly breeze. Wind ranged between 6-7 knots on the first race, but increased to 9-10 knots for the second race of the day, sailing with the OSCAR flag up.

So far, in the Men’s fleet the New Zealand Team is holding on to 1st place. They are followed by the French crew, which moved up after an excellent day scoring two second places. The Spanish crew formed by Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez have lost the podium to the French team and to the Olympic champions Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan.

“It’s really enjoyable to be back sailing with the 470 fleet, after over a year and a half training in New Zealand, it’s great to sail in Vilamoura” said Paul-Snow Hansen, from the New Zealanders fleet.

The 2021 World Champions, Silvia Mas Depares and Patricia Cantero still lead the Women’s fleet. They are followed by the 2019 European Champions Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz who are only 3 points behind.

Regarding the Mixed fleet, it has seen changes in the leaderboard: Nitai Hasson and Saar Tamir from Israel have confirmed their position in the first place. However, they are now followed by the German Team formed by Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra and by the British team of Vita Heathcote and Ryan Orr.

The 470 European Championships: an exciting event in Portugal

The 470 World Championships happened earlier this year also in Vilamoura as well as the Olympic qualifying races. After the cancellation of the Semaine Olympique Française in France, the organization team at Vilamoura transferred the Finn European Championship to Vilamoura.

For the 34 teams that have already been selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Vilamoura, this is their last major competition before the Olympics. They will have the chance to prove they are at the top of their game and are ready to try their best in the Olympic Games.

The Medal Race will take place on Friday May 7th. Until then, we can follow the action of this nautical race on YouTube following the Vilamoura Sailing channel.