In Fleet 1 there is a clear dominance from the side of Tahiti, with the team winning every single one of their races, making no mistakes and giving a true lesson in sailing to all the other teams. Slovenia follows close in the points standings, allowing both these teams to move on to the 1/16 Finals.
In Fleet 2, Portugal and Estonia are the teams who qualified to the next round. Before the last race, Chile and Portugal were tied with 10 points, until Estonia beat both in the last round pushing Chile off the podium.
However, Chile’s 12 points means they make it into the two best runners-up teams, giving them the magical ‘Lucky Loser’ ticket and progressing to the 1/16 Finals in place of one of the two teams who can’t be here for the competition.
In Fleet 3, coming into race 4 on the golden day, Antigua & Barbuda, Ukraine, and Malaysia were tied with 8 points each. Bermuda at this point is last in the fleet, but only 2 points behind. In the 4th race Malaysia manages to take the lead before crumbling under the pressure at the leeward gate and making an awful mark rounding.
However, they manage to find the energy to come back and win the race, allowing them to move on to the 1/16 Finals. Bermuda finishes in second, tying in points with Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda passes to the next round and Antigua & Barbuda get relegated from the 1st to the 3rd spot.
However, their 12 points mean they are also one of the ‘Lucky Losers’ and pass on to the next round. Ukraine’s lower shroud breaks and that is the end of their hopes to continue in the competition.
In Fleet 4, it is a very tight pack from start to finish. It is 45 minutes of an all-out naval battle until Lithuania manages to pass the finish line first, followed by the Republic of South Africa. They both qualify for the next round whilst the Czech Republic and Oman are going home.
Coming up next is the 1/16 Finals, where ten teams from the first round battle it out against the 6 new teams: Austria, Finland, Hungary, Croatia, Canada and Japan!
