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23 October 2006, 09:21 am

KONDO And KAMATA Star On Final Day

Enoshima Olympic Week 2006

Enoshima, Japan

The ISAF Grade 2 Enoshima Olympic Week wrapped up in Japan on Sunday, with 470 World Championship silver medallists Ai KONDO and Naoko KAMATA (JPN) the star performers on another light wind day.

The forecast for the final day indicated that the wind strength would drop through the day and shift to the right, so the Race Committee decided to get the fleets out as quickly as possible. The RS:X started at 10:00 and 49er, 470, and youth classes followed under 5 minute interval starting procedures.

The RS:X fleet squeezed in two races, but the course was shortened at the second windward mark for the final race. Makoto TOMIZAWA (JPN) managed to win the final race in pumping conditions and took the overall title. Yuki SUNAGA sailed well to stay first women.

The 49ers completed two races. Kota JO and Yoshihide UMEDA managed to beat overall leaders Kenjiro TODOROKI and Kenji TAKAHASHI, by choosing the opposite side of the course area to find more pressure. However, thanks to a string of bullets earlier in the series, TODOROKI and TAKAHASHI were comfortable winners overall.

Women Show The Way In 470

The 470 fleet also had two races and again World Championship silver medallists KONDO and KAMATA showed their light wind ability to score 1,2 under the difficult conditions, and won the overall and the women's division. It is the first time that a Women's 470 team have won overall in the mixed fleet in Japan - a fleet which included Olympic bronze medallist Kazuto SEKI (JPN) - so all the national Men's 470 team members were quite upset. Second overall were Tetsuya MATSUNAGA and Taro UENO (JPN),

Youth classes only managed to finish one race. Amongst the winners were Japan's 420 team for the Asian Games, Shibuki IIZUKA and Shingen FURUYA.