Rio 2016 Olympics: Nacra 17 Day 1

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1st Image by matias Capizzano, check his Rio 2016 Day 3 portfolio here. Rest of pics official Images by Getty / Clive Manson. Full Galery at www.rio2016.com/ —

Race 1
That was a tough day for the sailors at Rio and for us to watch, first was tricky & shifting, but Santi Lange & Ceci Carranza tactics were perfect to lead the fleet with a great margin at the 2nd downwind leg. Mins later BRA got behind the Argies and then the entire fleet train coming straight at them with a gust , check the gate situation to the left!
Remember this race had good gusts so it was not your usual calm racing traffic, it was full speed for some. Meanwhile Billy & Marie were recovering big time after a bad start which left them in last place, it was a 7th overall or the French crew, a really good one, a great save.

After the gate mess, SUI Buhler-Brugger  (Matias was Lange protegé and assistant coach for him in Beijing) put his good learnt knowledge to grab the lead, reaching 1st to the V and last windward mark followed by GBR and SIN.

It was again a good lead like the ARG crew had in the previous upwind mark and SUI went looking to the finish with a 200mts gap… Till they caught a wind hole and the back pack charged again!
It was crazy, felt for all they sailors racing there, but then again this are the Olympics and you rarely see perfect venues.

SIN among others pressured SUI , and the Asian crew almost took over, but Matias & Nathalie showed why they’ve been one of the best crews of the Nacra 17 campaign to win the race over the finish line. GBR came in 3rd.

Race 2
That was the first race, of course after that lottery the committee postponed the races for a while and 3-4 more attempts were played, to finally give green light for the second race which was held in light winds.

Rather normal start for the fleet with BRA and URU going for the left side of the course, giving them a good lead at the mark. Downwind the locals controlled, followed by URU, GBR & GRE , same situation at the IV mark, where ARG had a 1min gap with the pack of  3 behind leading BRA.
That gap remained to 40 secs aprox to the last windward mark and from then one the Argentines went on a mission to hunt them all but Albretch-Swan who cruising to the finish to grab a bullet and recover from a 19th from the first race.

It was a secured 5th for the ‘old’ Argentine Olympic warrior, who suffered a lung surgery past year but kept pushing to be able to participate in this games with their kids , who qualified to race against Burling & Outteridge inthe 49er.
But ‘Nono’ (grandpa) as I called him, already gave away a bullet in the first race so it was revenge time for the Tornado Master and his crew Ceci Carranza, a former Laser Radial Olympic helm.

ARG caught GBR, URU and got GRE to leeward with superior downwind speed, later a super smooth gybe plus perfect spi pass by Ceci put the Argentines over and ahead the greeks bow to finish in second place. It was a Master Class pass by Lange.   I can imagine having this guy behind and just going “oh well I’m done!”
It was 3rd then for Bekatourou & Pateniotis , 4th for AUT and 5th for the British crew.

Day 1 was over at Bahia de Guanabara, tough day as they come. Billy & Marie had a bad second race finishing 19th , but still much left, this has not even started if more days like this are ahead.
Below the live report, which I will be doing tomorrow in CSN Twitter account again or those not able to follow the stream or the tracks.  Check photo I retwitted from Shirley Robertson with Besson in the whell chair..
———–
RACE 1: Terrible shifty race, lottery mostly with SUI & ARG leading second downwind leg to be hunted up by the entire fleet at the gate! Billy & Marie were last at the start, but recovered to an excellent 7th  considering their earlier position.
But SUI managed to survive winning an incredible race. Live Updates on Twitter bar below.

– R1 Results prov: SUI, SIN,GBR, NED,AUS,FRA,DEN, NZL, ITA, ARG …
– R2 held in light winds, impressive second by Lange-Carranza cmoning from 5th. Check progression in Twitter window: BRA, ARG, GRE, AUT, GBR, URU

Pics & full report later or those who couldn´t watch the race-
Overall Results after 2 Races: rio2016.com/en/sailing-standings-sa-nacra-17-mixed#

Pos Flag Helm Crew R1 R2 Tot
1 SUI BUHLER Matias BRUGGER Nathalie 1 7 8
2 GBR SAXTON Ben GROVES Nicola 3 5 8
3 ARG LANGE Santiago CARRANZA Cecilia 11 2 13
4 AUS WATERHOUSE Jason DARMANIN Lisa 6 8 14
5 AUT ZAJAC Thomas FRANK Tanja 12 4 16
6 DEN NORREGAARD Allan VIBORG Anette 8 9 17
7 BRA ALBRECHT Samuel SWAN Isabel 17 1 18
8 SIN LIU Justin LIM Denise 2 16 18
9 NED MULDER Mandy DE KONING Coen 5 13 18
10 CAN RAMSAY Luke GIRKE Nikola 4 17 21
11 USA GULARI Bora CHAFEE Louisa 13 10 23
12 GRE BEKATOROU Sofia PATENIOTIS Michail 21 3 24
13 NZL JONES Gemma SAUNDERS Jason 9 15 24
14 ITA BISSARO Vittorio SICOURI Silvia 10 14 24
15 URU DEFAZIO Pablo FOGLIA Mariana 19 6 25
16 GER KOHLHOFF Paul WERNER Carolina 14 11 25
17 FRA BESSON Billy RIOU Marie 7 19 26
18 ESP ECHAVARRI Fernando PACHECO Tara 16 12 28
19 ARU VAN DER VELDEN Nicole VISSER Thijs 15 18 33
20 TUN GHARBI Hedi HAMMAMI Riheb 18 21 39

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