Predicting the wind is harder than we thought

So Alexandros Kalpoginnakis was not right about today. Big sun and strong wind, he said. Nor was anybody else.

The wind anticipated for the morning did not show up as we’d like it to. Well, we got the sun here in Varkiza, on the Greek coast south of Athens, but this was a tough day for everyone as the fleets were left trying to salvage something from the intensely difficult racing conditions the day served up, a big test for the young sailors’ all-round skills.

The Race Committee performed miracles, managing two more rounds of racing. That meant there were some surprise results and a few shake-ups in the rankings, but with better conditions forecast and discards available, nothing is yet won or lost.

Junior Girls is once again an Israel 1-2, but Mika Kafri has now carved out a good lead, ahead of compatriot Amit Segev, with Poland’s Aleksandra Wasiewicz re-appearing in third place. In Junior Boys, overnight leader Konrad Machura lost it to his closest rival, Italy’s Alessandro Melis, but is still second, ahead of Boris Shaw from Great Britain. In Youth Girls, France’s Manon Pianazza is showing no signs of pressure, still heading the list in front of Israeli duo, Sharon Kantor and Naama Greenberg. After her bad hair day yesterday, Russia’s Youth Olympic medal winner Yana Reznikova is now very threatening in fourth place. In Youth Boys, not only did top weather man Alexandros Kalpoginnakis get that wrong, he also got his racing wrong in the wrong conditions, slipping back to third place, behind the day’s big winner, Israel’s Daniel Tashtash who leapfrogs team-mate Roi Hillel to stand leader tonight. 

We’re crossing our fingers for tomorrow’s wind. And we hope this predictions is right!

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