ABU DHABI // Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark will be hoping to hold on to their narrow three-point lead in the women’s 470 Class race that looks certain to produce an exciting finish on the final day of the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
Up for grabs today are eight Olympic titles and the open kiteboarding competition as the four-day competition reaches a climax today at the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club on the Breakwater.
Mills and Clark, the British medal hopefuls at the 2016 Rio Olympics, are engaged in a close tussle with the defending champions Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar of Austria and the Japanese sailors Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka, both in second.
“We had a good penultimate day with a first- and third-place finish, but it’s still a wide open race. So it’s anybody’s race on the final day,” Mills said.
Mills and Clark have twice finished behind the Austrian pair, finishing runners-up to them two weeks ago in the World Championships in Haifa, and third in Santander, Spain, in 2014.
In the men’s 470 Class, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan, the defending champions and multiple world champions, lead going into the final day. The Australian pair have a seven-point lead with Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom in second place.
Still in the hunt are Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes who won the day’s first race before finishing seventh in the next to end Day 3 a single point behind the Swedes.
Belcher predicted a “tricky race” to start with in the morning with conditions turning difficult.
“It can be pretty dynamic racing and with the direction of the breeze it can be pretty tricky,” said the Australian. “The racing has been pretty close, we pulled it back in the last race and had a good first one.
“With only six races in the class it’s been close, so it will all come down to the final day.
“With the races being so close, it says a lot about the format of the races rather than the calibre of the sailors. We know the calibre of the sailors is high as we have just done our world championships so everyone is in really good shape.”
Bryony Shaw, another member of the 2016 British Olympic team, held a comfortable lead in the women’s RS:X Class.
Only something remarkable on the final round can deny her from retaining title.
She won all three races yesterday and, with six victories overall in nine races, the Briton leads by seven points from Flavia Tartaglini of Italy, and Brazilian Patricia Freitas in third.
In the rest of the race categories, Brazilian Ricardo Santos holds a two-point advantage over Spain’s Ivan Pastor Lafuente in the men’s RS:X Class.
Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic of Croatia leads the Finn class ahead of Briton Edward Wright and Alican Kaynar of Turkey in joint second.
Marit Bouwmeester of Netherlands go into the final round with a single-point lead from Josefin Olsson of Sweden in the Laser Radials while Dominik Buksak and Szymon Wierzbicki of Poland held on to the leaderboard in the 49er Class.
apassela@thenational.ae
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