It was all change on day 3 at the 470 World Championships in Haifa, Israel as the series intensified as places changed and two new leaders took over at the front.
Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO) scored two second places to escape the shadow of overnight leaders Mat Belcher/Will Ryan (AUS) and give themselves a useful safety net of 11 points to head this tough championship fleet. An upset in race 6 pushed the Aussies to a 21st place finish, following up with a 15th in race 7 to end the day in second overall.
But for us ‘Jaapies’ back home, our eyes are on Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson in their quest to qualify for Rio 2016.
There were strong performances on day three from teams looking to claim one of the six Olympic qualification places, with Germany’s Ferdinand Gerz/Oliver Szymanksi and Finland’s brother partnership of Joonas Lindgren/Niklas Lindgren consolidating their positions inside the top ten.
South Africa’s Asenathi Jim/Roger Hudson are currently on a tie-break with Israel’s Eyal Levin/Dan Froyliche as they both battle for Olympic slots. But ahead of them right now are teams from Argentina, Turkey and Korea.
Our RSA team are now tied for the 6th qualification spot, so the final races in the next few days will be absolutely critical, and good solid results needed for them to edge ahead and crack the nod for Rio.
Positive thoughts everyone – very positive thoughts!
Their results after 7 races are: 15; 12; 19; 13; 8; 10; 19