Day 5 of the Last Chance Regatta witnessed sisters Katerina and Barbora Svikova claiming first and second place in the three-rider final of the women's windsurfing competition. Katerina led the fleet from the opening series through to the finals yesterday and secured a spot for Czechia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer. Johanna Hjertberg claimed third in the winner-takes-all race, earning a place for Sweden at the Games. Other nations to qualify in iQFOiL are AIN, Turkey, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, and Estonia.
Meanwhile, in the men's windsurfing competition, Makoto Tomizawa won the medal race, securing an Olympic spot for Japan. Noah Lyons, who had earned a Paris berth for the USA the previous day by winning the opening series, took the silver medal ahead of Greece's Vyron Kokkalanis. The other nations now qualified for men's windsurfing are Lithuania, Hong Kong China, Finland, and Slovakia.
In the women's kiteboarding medal series, Izabela Satrjan (POL) and Derin Atakan (TUR) made it through the semi-finals to join Elena Lengwiler (SUI) and another Polish rider, Julia Damasiewicz. Elena finished the event in style, claiming first in the medal race and overall. The two Poles, Damasiewicz and Satrjan, took silver and bronze respectively. Along with the above-mentioned qualified countries, other qualifiers for Paris 2024 in women's kiteboarding are Turkey, Austria, and Portugal.
In the men's division, it was another Polish silver and bronze for Maks Zakowski and Jan Marciniak, with Britain's Connor Bainbridge topping the podium. The other countries that have also qualified for Olympic spots in men’s kiteboarding are the USA, Greece, and Israel.
Men's skiff teams from Germany, Belgium, and Brazil will go into today’s medal race on almost equal points. Although the outcome of the medals remains uncertain, these three nations could at least celebrate having secured spots for their countries at the Olympics. Hong Kong, China, is also well placed to take the last of the available places for Paris 2024.
The Polish pair of Aleks Melzacka and Sandra Jankowiak have sailed exceptionally well throughout the week and have earned their place at Paris before the medal race is even run. While the battle for second and third is on, the teams from Finland, Germany, and Japan have already claimed the remaining spots for their nations at Paris 2024.
In the mixed dinghy 470s, two Italian teams have been battling it out at the front of the fleet all week. Giacomo Ferrari and Alessandra Dubbini have an eight-point lead over their competition for Italian selection, Elena Berta and Bruno Festa. The Slovenian team of Tina Mrak and Jakob Božic are in third going into the medal race. Italy is assured of the event gold medal as well as a place at the Games where they will be joined by fellow qualifiers Slovenia and Greece.
In the Nacra 17 mixed multihull, Denmark and Turkey have secured Olympic places while Belgium, Japan, and Singapore fight it out for the last two nation’s spots available.
In the ILCA 7s, Jeemin Ha and Karl-Martin Rammo have respectively won Olympic spots for Korea and Estonia, along with Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy who is now set to represent Malaysia at his fourth successive Games. The medal race today will determine who claims the last Olympic spot available.
In the women's dinghy ILCA 6s, Emerging Nations (ENP) athlete Ebru Bolat holds the lead and has done enough to guarantee an Olympic place for Romania. Today will see a close battle for the three remaining Paris places in the ILCA 6 class.
Results are available for all classes for both events, standby for the medal race results.