Nacra 17 Paris 2024 Olympics Final Results
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All images World Sailing / lloyd Images / Sander van der Vorch / Jean-Louis Carli
Nacra 17 Final Day of racing Paris 2024 Olympics
The Medal and final race of the event was held earlier today in super light winds, yesterday it was cancelled.
The battle for the podium was reduced to 4 teams only: The Italians Ruggero Tita & Catherina Banti holding a good 14pts lead over Argentines Mateo Majdalani & Eugenia Bosco. 6pts behind them, GBR Gimson-Burnet and NZ Wilkinson-Dawson were tied for hunting Silver and the Argies were the only ones capable to take Gold from the mighty ITA team.
It was 7AM here in BA, I had some issues with connectivity this time around, as I was taking on of the kids to school too, TV on the background, couldn’t watch in detail, only image I could saw was ARG doing a 360 right at the starting line…… Here we go.. I thought, Rio 2016 crazy Lange-Carranza vibes all over again.
Finally I decide not to take the kid to school, and watched the tracking + live stream with more focus. Later I saw an OCS for GBR and that was it, a medal was secure for our Argie mates and the Kiwis.
Super light wind conditions today where FRA Mourniac-Berthomieu took the lead followed by the speed masters Tita & Banti, who had no issues whatsoever racing in 4-5knots as they used to struggle some years ago, the Italians secured the Gold in total control while ARG was gambling right side on first downwind after a late start on the over the line 360 they did. They caught NZ at the gate and went with them to the second windward mark, for a final push to secure Silver, but it was a done deal at the time.
Not an exciting race as the previous 12 we followed this week but still an Olympic podium deciding race.
We all felt for Team GBR, the Tokyo Silver medalist reached this final race with chances to repeat podium but an over the line at the start and Not going back as ARG and FIN did, put them out of the fight, later the jury took them out.
Gold x2 for Italia
Congrats Ruggero & Catherina for the Gold, Mateo & Euge showed some excellent moments in the breeze against them this week. But the Italians prevailed with style.
Not much to add about Tita & Banti, what a solid perfect team, always in control the undisputable Nr 1 one Olympic Catsailors, hats off to them and congrats for a second consecutive Gold Medal on the foiling Nacra 17 mode. Ruggero now will go out to helm the Prada Americas Cup foiling mono.
NZ
Great results for the Kiwis, after a 12th at Tokyo 2020, Micah Wilkinson & Erica Dawson grabbed the Bronze medal at Paris showing an aggressive and fast mode the entire week.
Silver for ARG
What a great achievement on their first attempt for Mateo Majdalani & Eugenia Bosco. Plenty left behind for them, lots of barriers at the begining of their campaign as we described here, leaving home to work in Europe to be able to fund their dream. For 2020 Olympics they were denied a formal qualification. For Paris 2024 there was No chance whatsoever for another finger decision and not have an internal qualy to decide the team to represent ARG.
Today I was asked where these two came from:
Mateo started sailing Opti here in BA, later 420, 29er (a third on a Worlds with Klaus Lange), later he helped in the 2016 Rio Campaign for Lange & Carranza. Back in 2012 he started sailing cats on our F18 Arg fleet along Pablo Volker (F18 2016 & 2024 World Champ). Together with more youths of their generation they trained a full summer in F18s to attend the 2013 San Francisco Youth Americas Cup.
There Mateo took the helm of the AC45, the Arg kids Team were praised by Bundock on having a bright future, specially on Mateo. Seems Bundy was about right on his assessments.
After the F18 Worlds we held in Buenos Aires, Mateo did some warm up regattas helming F18s and later coached a local crew for the Wolds. At that same event Eugenia was racing F18 as crew with Ian Rodger.
Euge started sailing Optimist as the majority of the kids in Argentina, later 29er Class. In 2013 she was called by our friend Esteban Blando to do N17 campaign for Rio, he was also responsible on bringing Ceci Carranza to Catamaran racing in Arg, Ceci did Laser campaigns previously.
Back on the 2016 F18 Worlds scenario, Mateo saw Eugenia excelling in the breeze crewing on board the F18s. Later asked her to get together and target an Olympic Nacra 17 campaign. Euge already did races on N17 with yet another helm, plus plenty F18 ones and FP flights, so she was a trained catsailor by the time.
From then on Mateo & Eugenia started training and racing only Nacra 17. From the start they showed potential, although consistency was not there. Many near misses for entering the top ten in Europeans races. Lack of support also held their chances back.
Without a formal qualy for Tokyo 2020, they did not even had a coach back then, they were relegated to the Panams Games where they obtained Silver.
Progressively they started improving, first their top end foiling upwind speed to score top 5 results and last two seasons, now with a formal coach / support team they started nailing consistency.
We followed the N17 circuit each year and it was patent they were on the verge to get all aspects together. In 2023 for the qualifications events for Paris 2024 they outperformed Lange by far and won the spot for Paris for Argentina, plus their own ticket to Paris with a solid performance.
Reaching Paris were not favorites but sure capable of podium as we wrote. Seeing these two kids putting that much effort, leaving family behind its a great satisfaction, especially the effort and journey Eugenia had, she went through many ups and downs, but managed to keep pushing no matter what.
Today Mateo recognized her several times on the local TV stream and interviews, and we are happy he acknowledges Euge’s commitment. The rookies have excelled on their first ever Olympics. Plenty more campaigns left.
Catamaran racing in Arg keeps bringing trophies back home. We hope this will help to continue the growth of the local Catracing scene.
As in 2016, Argentina grabs Nacra 17 Medal and F18 Worlds Title. Now we will target next years a podium in the A-Class, that will be an ever toughest one to achieve!
Official scores: https://paris2024.sailing.org/racing/results-centre/
Tracking GPS to review races: https://britishsailingteam.rya.org.uk/paris-2024/tracking/
Nacra 17 Paris 2024 Final Results.
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