A stunner of a day for the finals of the 2010 470 Junior World Championships in Doha, Qatar. Racing the first Medal Race today were the women's fleet, with the medals at the hands of several teams from the six nations qualifying to the Medal Race: Japan, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Ukraine and Malaysia.

470 Women

The top two boats, Japan's Saki Goto/Hiromi Nishiyama in first overall and Germany's Victoria Jurczok/Josephine Bach were on equal points – but still had plenty of work to do to put themselves on the podium.

Annika Bochmann and Anika Lorenz (GER) were third overall in the standings going into the Medal Race and had every chance of a medal, but their second place finish in the Medal Race was not sufficient. Jurczok/Bach sailed a relatively safe race to finish fourth and secure the gold. They relished the stronger conditions, as did the other German team in with a chance for the podium slots Bochmann/Lorenz. It was not the kind of day the Japanese wanted though just a bit too much wind for them to compete against the heavier teams – but they held steady to finish mid fleet and take the bronze.

3D Animation of 470 Women Medal Race - by Icarus

470 Men

Second up on the race track were the Men's fleet, with 10 teams from seven different nations – France, Austria, Italy, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Greece – in the Medal Race. The teams of David Bargehr/Lukas Mahr of Austria and Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion from France knew going into the medal race that they were certain to leave Qatar with medals around their necks – they just did not know whether the colours would be gold or silver. A second place to Bouvet/Mion was more than enough to give them the gold, whilst the Austrians who finished sixth in the Medal Race took the silver.

The fight was then on for the bronze between several nations. France's Sacha Pelisson/Nicolas Rossi won the Medal Race, and will be disapponted that despite finishing eighth it was the Italians of Simon Svitz Kosuta/Jas Farnetti who had enough of a points advantage over them to claim the silver.

3D Animation of 470 Men Medal Race - by Icarus

A full report will be published soon - Medal Photos and more on the Event Website: www.juniorworlds.470.org

Keep Updated:
Live Race Tracking of every race was provided by TracTrac: www.juniorworlds.470.org

3D Race Animation Video of the Medal Races, Course Introduction and 470 Men Race 1.

Check out our Facebook and Twitter feeds for race updates, either via www.facebook.com/pages/470-Olympic-Sailing/194919699300 or www.twitter.com/470Sailing or www.juniorworlds.470.org

Images are available through the online Photo Gallery. Any specific photo requests may be sent to: office@470.org

About the 2010 470 Junior World Championships:
The 2010 470 Junior World Championships is a “pay and play” event with brand new supplied 470s. The concept of supplied equipment is a first time experience for many of the teams, and one which the 470 Class is keen to promote. With supplied equipment, all teams compete on an equal footing with only minor adjustments allowed to settings as the boats are rotated between the two fleets.

All images © Thom Touw

22/12/2010 19:37