Above/left: Sagami Bay, Enoshima. In Rio three years ago there was the luxury of the inside course to keep the less ‘sea-friendly’ classes like the Nacra and 49ers in play when the wind blew and the ocean started to kick up – that is why the most famous big wave shots from the 2016 Olympic regatta were all of Finns and 470s ripping it up outside on the big days while the more modern classes stayed on or near the shore (along, ironically, with the TV crews). Enoshima does not have this luxury and the 2020 Olympic regatta may be a supreme test of heavy weather skill for those racing the fastest classes if the breeze blows as it did at the 2019 test events
and Aloise Retornaz. Like Mills, Lecointre took some time out of campaigning after winning a bronze at Rio 2016 with Hélène Defrance who, like Clark, retired after the Brazil Games. Now, after becoming a mother and teaming up with Retornaz, Lecointre is looking to improve on her 2016 bronze. After the British broke the startline early and had to return to restart the French sailed away to a Medal Race victory and the important psychological advantage of winning Test Regatta gold ahead of the reigning Olympic and World Champions who had to settle for silver, four points in front of the Poles Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar. Local heroes Ai Kondo Yoshida and
Miho Yoshioka finished fourth in the Women’s 470 at the Test Regatta, just four points off the podium. Along with the men’s squad which boasts a number of world-class teams, Japan is resting its hopes very much on the 470 class in which it has always been strong yet which rarely succeeds in winning an Olympic medal. The Japanese media and local fans were out in force when Kazuto Doi and Naoya
Kimura won bronze at the World Cup Regatta; for sailing’s sake it would be great if the Japanese were able to win at least one medal on home waters next year. Those waters, by the way, are some-
thing to behold, never mind compete on. The rolling Pacific swell is massive, and the sailors love barrelling down the waves at breakneck speeds. At least they do if they’re in one of the older soft-sail classes like the Finn, Laser or 470. Even the 470s had their moments, with
the Ready Steady Tokyo men’s silver medallists from Sweden, Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström, nosediving and full-on pitchpoling their boat at the bottom of one particularly steep and nasty trough. ‘You can’t let up your focus for one moment,’ said Dahlberg. ‘I lost my concentration for a second and didn’t react in time.’ To be fair to the Swede, though, these are conditions that even the most experienced Olympic campaigners have never seen before. They’re having to work out their wave-craft as they go. Dahlberg and Bergström have been one of the strongest performers of this cycle
and look almost certain to get an Olympic medal of some colour, along with Jordi Xammar and Nico Rodríguez of Spain. But the nailed-on favourite for the gold medal is the Australian duo of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan who won a hat-trick of golds in Enoshima this summer – the World Championship, Ready Steady Tokyo and Hempel Sailing World Cup. The latest world title victory brings
Belcher’s tally to eight, along with the Olympic gold he won with Malcolm Page at London 2012 and the silver from Rio that he won with Ryan. The only team to have proven a consistent threat to the Aussies over the past decade were the Croatian crew of Šime Fantela and Igor Marenic who went their separate ways after winning their country’s first ever Olympic sailing gold three years ago. Fantela, with his brother Mihovil, has
made a swift transition to the top of the 49er fleet, winning last year’s world championship after just 18 months in the skiff class. Marenic is earning his living big boat sailing, steering Bronenosec in the TP52 Super Series, but was also out in
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