39 Nations Qualify For London 2012 After Eight Days Racing At Perth 2011

After the Finn, Men’s 470, Women’s RS:X and Laser Radial completed racing today at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships 39 nations, out of the 79 competing in Perth, have qualified to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Hungary’s Diana Detre took the final qualification spot in the Women’s RS:X today following a tense final race.

The Netherlands’ Lilian de Geus trailed the Hungarian by six points with two races remaining but after Race 9 the Dutch girl closed the gap to a single point after finishing fourth compared to Detre’s ninth place. The pressure was on in the final race with Geus and Detre fighting early on. But the Hungarian did what she needed to do to qualify Hungary by finishing five points ahead of de Geus.

“I am pretty happy because it was really tight at the end,” Detre said onshore racing. “Before the last race Lilian de Geus could still beat me to take the final place so it was going to be really close. But in the last race I beat her by quite a lot of distance so I’m happy that happened.”

The Hungarian was unaware of the point’s deficit as she headed into the final race but knew her task, and after a minor setback she came through on top. Detre added, “I didn’t know the exact points going into the final race as I wasn’t counting in my head. I just wanted to do what I had to do and just finish before her by as much distance as I could.

“In the second race I fell off and injured myself a little bit so it was really hard to concentrate on the race but I was still able to do it.”

With qualification for Hungary guaranteed Detre now has time to relax, but her spot is not cast-iron for London 2012 with Sara Cholnoky also in contention for the Hungarian spot, “Next up for me is a bit of rest and then I am going to Spain to train for the next World Championships but before I am going to compete at the Europeans and then train and train before London 2012.”

View an interview with the Hungarian here.

After the fleet split 18 nations had guaranteed their Women’s RS:X places with 20 of the 28 Olympic spots on offer in Perth, Hungary join them as do Greece after Angeliki Skarlatou took the 19th place.

Twenty five of the 29 Olympic spots available at Perth 2011 in the Laser Radial were decided following the fleet split leaving four available for Silver fleet sailors to fight over. Singapore’s Elizabeth Yin, Portugal’s Sara Carmo, Japan’s Kanako Hiruta and Norway’s Marthe Enger Eide all qualified their nation.

St. Lucia’s Beth Lygoe came close to qualifying her nation but finished 14 points off the Norwegian. With nine of the further 39 spots available at the Laser World Championship next year, Lygoe, and all the other nations have a second chance to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Ahead of the final day in the Men’s 470 Gold fleet 24 nations were fighting for 19 London 2012 places available in Perth. In the end Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden and the USA all came through strong to take Olympic spots.

And in the Finn class, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the USA took the 18 London 2012 spots up for grabs at Perth 2011.

Find out more on the Olympic Qualification system here.

The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships website will bring you results, tracking, live updates and all the latest news both on and off the water.

The battle for Extreme Sailing Supremacy continues in Singapore.

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