With helicopters hovering overhead and hundreds of cameras focused on them, Marcelien de KONING and Lobke BERKHOUT stole the Women's 470 show on Wednesday with two second place finishes in light and testing conditions.
The Dutch three-time World Championship winning team, better known for their speed in windy conditions, tie on points at top of the leaderboard with
Elise RECHICHI and
Tessa PARKINSON (AUS) and take the overall lead on countback. These two crews have now built a 14-point gap over the chasing pack.
The Australians posted their worst race of the regatta in the first race of the day, but collected their composure and rebounded to close the day fourth in race 6.
Like the Australians,
Natalia VIA-DUFRESNE and
Laia TUTZO (ESP) and
Nike KORNECKI and
Vered BUSKILA (ISR) posted a keeper and a discard. They are in third and fourth, respectively, following the completion of six races.
European Champions
Sylvia VOGL and
Carolina FLATSCHER (AUT) have come out fighting after their DSQ in race 2 and posted progressively better scores since then. They won race 5 and were seventh in race 6. Their scores moved them from 13th after two days of racing to sixth and within striking distance of third place. The Austrians won race 5 by a distant margin over
Marcelien DE KONING and
Lobke BERKHOUT and
Emmanuelle ROL and
Anne-Sophie THILO (SUI), who were glued together throughout race 5 while the rest of the fleet tried to edge out one another.
In the following race, as the Women's 470 fleet moved into the second half of their regatta, world #1 crew
Ai KONDO and
Naoko KAMATA (JPN) reminded everybody that they are competing in the regatta and finally won a race.
Overal Results - click here