470 European title goes down to the wire

SSL Team Sweden’s Lovisa Karlsson, crewing for Anton Dahlberg, defended their 470 European Championship title in San Remo, Italy by a single point from Germany’s Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort. The final day Medal Race was an epic, with several teams still in the running to win the title.

Hippolyte Machetti and SSL Team France’s Aloïse Retornaz finished third, with their fellow country team of SSL Team France’s Camille Lecointre, sailing with Jérémie Mion, in fourth.

Machetti and Retornaz had sailed a brilliant medal race, and looked set to win gold, but at the bottom gate before the sprint to the finish, they were luffed by their national rivals Lecointre and Mion, and the umpires judged the hadn’t kept clear, which dropped them from first to fourth in the medal race, and from the top step of the podium overall to the bronze medal position.

Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg was ecstatic about the win: "We were lucky but we feel so happy! The French dropped some important points in the end which was unfortunate for them, but it was enough to make the small difference in our favour. It's such a relief to defend our European Championship."

Anna Markfort was pragmatic about finishing second overall by a single point: "If you'd have offered us a silver medal at the European Championships at the start of the week, we'd have grabbed it. I'm exhausted, physically, mentally, everything! We've pushed ourselves all week and we're really pleased with how we've sailed."

Hippolyte Machetti was understandably hurting after coming so close to winning the title, but accepted the result graciously: "I'm still happy we came away with a medal when so many boats were in contention. It was a learning experience, a tough one, but we're getting better and a medal this week is a sign we’re moving in the right direction."

Full results from the 470 European Championship can be found here.