SAILING: Three wins for China, two for Germany in Miami World Cup

Brazil's Olympic 49er FX champs Grael and Kunze

Wind and skill are the dominant factors in sailing and a shifting, light wind on the final created considerable drama at the second World Sailing Hempel World Cup off of Miami, Florida (USA).

China ended up winning both of the RS:X Windsurfing events, with Bing Ye winning a tight battle with Poland’s Radoslaw Formanski, 62.0-67.0, clinching the win with a victory in the medal race, while Formanski was third.

Yunxiu Lu won the women’s RS:X, again in the medal race. Lu’s second-place finish was enough to hold off Israel’s Katy Spychakov, 42.0-50.0, as Spychakov finished fifth (10 points).

The third Chinese win came in the women’s Laser Radial. Dongshuang Zhang, who edged American Paige Railey, 81.0-95.0 by sticking close to her throughout the medal race.

The tightest classes were in the Finn and women’s 49er FX, where the medal races made the difference. In Finn, Sweden’s Max Salminen started with a four-point lead, but had a bad start and looked like he might not even win a medal. Finland’s Oskari Muhonen pulled into the lead halfway through and won the race, but Salminen managed to come from the back of the pack to finish fifth and that was good enough to hold onto the win, 47.0-50.0. Luke Muller of the U.S. got the bronze at 53.0.

The women’s 49er FX class looked like it would be a reversal of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. New Zealand’s silver medalists, Alexandria Maloney and Molly Meech had a 42.0-54.0 lead going into the medal race, against their old rivals, the Rio winners Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze of Brazil. But in the medal race, it was Grael and Kunze who finished second, while Maloney and Meech managed only ninth. The differential – four vs. 18 – was enough to give the win to the Brazilians, 58.0-60.0.

German boats won two races, the men’s 49er class with Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel and the women’s 470, in a blanket finish among four boats: Frederike Lowe and Anna Markfort (GER), 60.0, just ahead of Fabienne Oster and Anastasiya Winkel (GER: 62.0), Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA: 64.0) and Hannah Mills and Elidih McIntyre (GBR: 65.0). Loewe and Markfort stuck close to the others and their fourth-place finish was enough to secure gold.

The third leg of the World Cup series will be in Genoa (ITA) starting on 14 April. Summaries:

World Sailing World Cup II
Miami, Florida (USA) ~ 27 January-3 February 2019
(Full results here)

Men

RS:X: 1. Bing Ye (CHN), 62.0 net points; 2. Radoslaw Formanski (POL), 67.0; 3. Pierre Le Coq (FRA), 69.0; 4. Pawel Tarnowski (POL), 76.0; 5. Thomas Goyard (FRA), 77.0.

Laser: 1. Hermann Tomasgaard (NOR), 50.0; 2. Sam Meech (NZL), 97.0; 3. Tom Burton (AUS), 121.0; 4. Charlie Buckingham (USA), 133.0; 5. Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA), 135.0.

Finn: 1. Max Salminen (SWE), 47.0; 2. Oskari Muhonen (FIN), 50.0; 3. Luke Muller (USA), 53.0; 4. Tom Ramshaw (CAN), 56.0; 5. Nils Theunnick (SUI), 58.0.

470: 1. Jordi Xammar Hernandez/Nicolas Rodriguez (ESP), 48.0; 2. Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE), 58.0; 3. Naoki Ichino/Takashi Hasegawa (JPN), 60.0; 4. Stuart McNay/David Hughes (USA), 74.0; 5. Balazs Gyapjas/Zsombor Gyapjas (HUN), 75.0.

49er: 1. Erik Heil/Thomas Ploessel (GER), 73.3; 2. Dylan Fletcher-Scott/Stuart Bithell (GBR), 91.0; 3. Sime Fantella/Mihovil Fantela (CRO), 99.0; 4. Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (GER), 108.0; 5. James Peters/Fynn Sterritt (GBR), 111.0.

Women

RS:X: 1. Yunxiu Lu (CHN), 42.0; 2. Katy Spychakov (ISR), 50.0; 3. Charline Picon (FRA), 54.0; 4. Peina Chen (CHN), 64.0; 5. Hongmei Shi (CHN), 69.0.

Laser Radial: 1. Dongshuang Zhang (CHN), 81.0; 2. Paige Railey (USA), 95.0; 3. Vasileia Karachaliou (GRE), 98.0; 4. Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN), 121.0; 5. Alison Young (GBR), 121.0. Also: 6. Erika Reineke (USA), 131.0.

470: 1. Frederike Lowe/Anna Markfort (GER), 60.0; 2. Fabienne Oster/Anastasiya Winkel (GER), 62.0; 3. Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA), 64.0; 4. Hannah Mills/Elidih McIntyre (GBR), 65.0; 5. Camille Lecointre/Aloise Retornaz (FRA), 77.0. Also: 8. Atlantic Brugman/Nora Brugman (USA), 91.0.

49er FX: 1. Martine Soffiatti Grael/Kahena Kunze (BRA), 58.0; 2. Alexandra Maloney/Molly Meech (NZL), 60.0; 3. Charlotte Dobson/Saskia Tidey (GBR), 63.0; 4. Anne-Julie Schutt/Iben Nielsby Christensen (DEN), 84.0; 5. Natasha Bryant/Annie Wilmot (AUS), 87.0. Also: 9. Stephanie Roble/Margaret Shea (USA), 117.0.

Mixed

Nacra 17: 1. Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin (AUS), 50.0; 2. Samuel Albrecht/Gabriela Nicolino de Sa (BRA), 58.0; 3. Santiago Lange/Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG), 72.0; 4. John Gimson/Anna Burnet (GBR), 79.0; 5. Paul Darmanin/Lucy Copeland (AUS), 88.0. Also: 8. Bora Gulari/Louisa Chafee (USA), 102.0; … 10. Sarah Newberry/David Liebenberg (USA), 128.0.