Do it right!
With five races and two discards in for the men today, we have some big names back at the top of the leaderboard chasing Sebastian Koerdel for the first place on the podium.
The French competitors Antoine Albeau and Nicolas Goyard were the ones to jump in front. The first winning three of the five races today. In the words of LL Cool J – don’t call it a comeback, we all knew the discards were going to come sooner or later.
Sebastian is still in front and although the distance between him and the following group is not a decisive one yet, he has been the most consistent competitor out there. Even today in challenging conditions he managed to finish in the top 3 in four out of the five races.
“It was a tough day. I’ve never been racing in that much wind. A lot of shifts, a lot of gusts, but I only got lifted out of the water because of the gusts once and managed to keep it together for most of the time. Especially at the beginning of the day it was awesome racing. In the first race I had a match race against Nicolas Goyard. I never had anything like this in my life. We changed positions seven or eight times, we were super close and could basically touch each other for most of the time. Super fast, super tight and a great fight for places 1 and 2. I thought I had him, but I made a mistake in my last jibe and he got me just before the finish.
When foiling you gain so much when you do it right, but that also means you can lose so much when you do it wrong and especially in the gusty winds. The gusty winds are a problem, but there is nothing better than a foil to cope with it. We can just go through the lows and use the gusts to accelerate. Today was very windy, well above 30 kts I would say and I’m very happy to have won the last race. The guys are hot on my heals and it doesn’t matter if I’m leading today - you have to lead on the last day, when the races are finished.”
And that is true. Anything can still happen.
Tomorrow we will be starting a little earlier as it is the final day and we need to catch up with a couple of races for the ladies, who only managed to do three races today and are on six after three days of the regatta. It is still Delphine Cousin and Marina Alabau fighting for the top spot.
So, who will come home with the top prize? We will learn tomorrow!