Gold Medals For France and Germany At 2010 470 Junior World Championship

470 Junior World Championship 2010

It was a stunner of a day for the finals of the 2010 470 Junior World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Racing the first Medal Race 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.

The top two boats, Japan's Saki Goto and Hiromi Nishiyama in first overall and Germany's Victoria Jurczok and 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 and 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.

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 and Lukas Mähr of Austria and Sofian Bouvet and Jeremie Mion (FRA) 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 and 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 and Nicolas Rossi won the Medal Race, and will be disapponted that despite finishing eighth it was the Italians of Simon Svitz Kosuta and Jas Farnetti who had enough of a points advantage over them to claim the silver.

2010 470 Junior World Championship website: www.juniorworlds.470.org

The Championships is sponsored by Qatar Airways, Qatar Development Bank and the Qatar Olympic Committee.

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