Nacra 17 Worlds 2024 @La Grande Motte: Day 5
– Photos by Didier Hillaire / LGYC
Lots going on at La Grande Motte YC. Tita & Banti shining in lights winds and the Swede Match Race getting hot.
Read official daily report sent by the event media, and written by Andy Rice. Results below report, complete list here
Nacra17 Worlds 2024 Day 5
Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti are too professional to admit it, but a strong performance in Saturday’s light airs races has all but secured the Italian defence of the Nacra 17 world title.
After scoring the best set of results of the day, 6,2,2, on a very light day out on the Mediterranean, the reigning World and Olympic Champions have stretched their advantage to 18 points over the British in second place. That gives John Gimson and Anna Burnet a mathematical possibility of still winning the world title if they manage to win the double-points medal race on Sunday – provided the Italians cross the finish line in 10th and last place.
So it’s understandable that Tita and Banti refuse even the hint of a celebration this evening. Instead Banti kept it business-like with her response in the late summer evening in La Grande Motte. “We are really happy, we had quite a consistent day,” she said. “Tomorrow we just want to focus on putting in a good performance.” Which means we don’t know whether they will sail their own race or go for an all-out match race against the British.
The latter option might seem brutal – a sledgehammer to crack a nut – but it’s a common strategy in medal races and this World Championship in some ways is also the dress rehearsal for the upcoming Olympic Regatta. So the British will go out tomorrow very aware of the possibilities of an Italian offensive from ITA 26.
Swedish Selection battle
What makes life even more difficult for Gimson and Burnet is that breathing down their necks and just a few points back are another Italian team – Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei – along with two Swedish teams. So any unwanted attention from ITA 26 could jeopardise the British hold on silver.
The Swedish selection trials are still going on and all week Ida Svensson and Marcus Dackhammar have been ahead on the scoreboard. A race win was a useful way to start the afternoon but then Emil Jarudd and Hanna Jonsson responded with a bullet in the last race of the day and close to just four points behind on the scoreboard.
With Jarudd and Jonsson holding the upper hand from previous trials regattas, Svensson and Dackhammar can’t take their slim advantage in La Grande Motte for granted. In a subjective selection trial decided not be pure points but by selection committee, none of the sailors can yet be sure of their Olympic destiny.
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