Paris Olympics Day 8 – Wearn Maintains Men’s Dinghy Lead

Reigning Olympic champion Matt Wearn put together another solid day in a fading Mistral breeze today to hold his lead atop the Men’s Dinghy leaderboard.

He avoided a mass black-flagging in the first race of the day that caught several of his closest competitors out. When a black flag (BFD) is displayed by the Race Committee, if a competitor false starts, the penalty is the equivalent of the total fleet plus one, in this case 44 points.

While his competitors toiled with the aftermath of accumulating a BFD, Matt went on to post two tenth place finishes and pressed home his advantage with two days of sailing to go in Marseille.

Cypriot Pavlos Kontides is now his closest competitor after steaming home for a seventh in the second race of the day in conditions that required the full set of skills from the fleet.

“We did the first race in the dying Mistral and it was one of those races where you didn’t really know what was going to happen,” said Wearn of the conditions.

“In the second race the westerly had kicked in and we got a race in that, but you didn’t really know how far it was going to go or if it was going to come back so it made for some tricky racing.”

There are two more qualifying races scheduled for tomorrow and the Medal Race set to take place on Tuesday 6 August.

The high-speed Kite Foiling class made their Olympic debut today, a discipline that sees foiling boards powered by kites that go three times the speed of the wind.

One of the medal prospects in the Women’s division is Townsville Yacht Club athlete Breiana Whitehead, who has consistently placed near the top of the fleet over the past two years and took out the Overall winner at this year’s Palma regatta.

“Breiana got a great start to her Olympic campaign showing a lot of confidence and speed on the water,” noted Australian Olympic Sailing Team Leader Iain Brambell. “It is really tight racing in the Kite event, and she currently sits just ten points off the podium.”

Australia’s Mixed Dinghy team of Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas posted a third and a sixteenth from their two races today to sit eighth overall.

“It’s all to play for still,” said Nicholas after racing.

“Everyone’s making mistakes and as you get less and less races to go, the pressure dials up and people start making even bigger mistakes. We need to keep a calm head and its game on.”

Zoe Thomson fought valiantly in the Women’s Dinghy, and she will take every opportunity to put her best foot forward in the final two qualifying races tomorrow.

The young Mixed Multihull team of Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown continue to knock on the door of the top ten as they sit in 12^th overall.

The same five fleets continue their qualifying races in what are predicted to be lighter winds tomorrow. The Men’s and Women’s Dinghy classes will conclude their qualification series ahead of Tuesday’s Medal Races.

Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta standings

Men’s Dinghy (43 entries)

1^st: Matt Wearn (AUS) 12, 2, 1, (18), 1, 2, 10, 10 – 38 points
2^nd: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 17, 5, (27), 5, 10, 5, 3, 7 – 52 points
3^rd: Stefano Peschiera (PER) 6, 1, 14, 11, (20), 14, 12, 4 – 62 points

Mixed Dinghy (19 entries)

1^st: Lara Vadlau & Lukas Maehr (AUT) (20 BFD), 5, 3, 1, 7, 1 – 17 points
2^nd: Jordi Xammar Hernandez & Nora Brugman Cabot (ESP) 5, (6), 5, 3, 6, 3 – 22 points
3^rd: Keiju Okada & Miho Yoshioka (JPN) 1, 2, 2, 6, (14), 12 – 23 points
8^th: Nia Jerwood & Conor Nicholas (AUS) 6, (20 UFD), 7, 7, 3, 16 – 39 points

Women’s Kite (20 entries)

1^st: Lauriane Nolot (FRA) 2, 1, (12), 2 – 5 points
2^nd: Eleanor Aldridge (GBR) 1, 2, 2, (3) – 5 points
3^rd: Daniela Moroz (USA) (7), 3, 4, 1 – 8 points
8^th: Breiana Whitehead (AUS) (12), 5, 7, 6 – 18 points

Mixed Multihull (19 entries)

1^st: Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti (ARG) 1, 1 (2), 1, 1, 1 – 5 points
2^nd: Micah Wilkinson & Erica Dawson (NZL) 5, 3, (7), 2, 2, 3 – 15 points
3^rd: Mateo Majdalani & Eugenia Bosco (ARG) 2, 2, 5, (10), 6, 6 – 21 points
12^th: Brin Liddell & Rhiannan Brown (AUS) 11, 11, (13), 13, 12, 7 – 54 points

Women’s Dinghy (43 entries)

1^st: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 4, 1, 2, 4, 2, 3, 3 (11) – 19 points
2^nd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 7, (26), 7, 2, 8, 4, 15, 4 – 47 points
3^rd: Maud Jayet (SUI) 16, 4, 3, 8, 13, (17), 7, 8 – 59 points
20^th: Zoe Thomson (AUS) 12, (37), 22, 11, 16, 6, 19, 35 – 121 points

Men’s Windsurfer (24 entries) – Complete

1^st: Tom Reuveny (ISR) 1 GF
2^nd: Grae Morris (AUS) 2 GF – SILVER MEDAL
3^rd: Luc Van Opzeeland (NED) 3 GF

Women’s Skiff (20 entries) – Complete

1^st: Odile Van Aanholt & Annette Duetz (NED) 5, 1, 1, 10, 8, 5, (19), 3, 2, 15, 4, 14, 6 MR – 74 points
2^nd: Vilma Bobeck & Rebecca Netzler (SWE) 14, 6, 15, 4, 15, 10, 2, 1, 5, 1, 1, (17), 2 MR – 76 pts
3^rd: Sarah Steyaert & Charline Picon (FRA) 2, 2, 2, 8, 2, 2, 12, 11, 10, (18), 6, 10, 12 MR – 79 pts
9^th: Olivia Price & Evie Haseldine (AUS) 6, 8, 16, 7, 11, 3, (20), 10, 9, 10, 10, 12, 18 MR – 120 pts

Men’s Skiff (20 entries) – Complete

1^st: Diego Botin Le Chever & Florian Trittel Paul (ESP) (16), 6, 4, 5, 11, 2, 3, 2, 2, 15, 12, 6, 2 MR – 70 pts
2^nd: Isaac Kale McHardie & William McKenzie (NZL) 1, 3, 8, 8, 1, 1, 11, (18), 17, 1, 10, 15, 6 MR – 82 pts
3^rd: Ian Barrows & Hans Henken (USA) 8, 7, (17), 9, 9, 5, 10, 7, 3, 2, 8, 12, MR 8 – 88 points
15^th: Jim Colley & Shaun Connor (AUS) 19, 17, 10, 14, 10, 9, 12, 3, 10, 3, 16, (20) – 123 pts