Italy’s sailors shone even brighter with two more golds on another perfect day in the Bay to finish the 57th Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères – TPM, the second event of the Sailing Grand Slam series.
France’s Lauriane Nolot and Singapore’s Max Maeder won the women’s and men’s kiteboarding (Formula Kite) and Italy’s Marta Maggetti and Australia’s Grae Morris the women’s and men’s windsurfing titles (iQFOiL) as the first four medals of the 57th Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères – TPM, the second event of the Sailing Grand Slam series.
The top ten in the standings will compete in the Final, where they will run two races. The points earned in the two races are added to the points accumulated during the final stages. The winner is the athlete with the fewest points.
As local favourites, Lauriane Nolot and Singapore’s flying teenager, Max Maeder, soared into Friday’s finals with perfect racing, this Hyères spectacular showed that even the greatest are human. Italy’s double Olympic champions, Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti, the dominant force in the Nacra this week - this decade - nosedived in the second race and down the leaderboard. But this is why they come to this stretch of the Med, because the challenge is different every day. Do not bet against them storming back by Saturday’s finals, but it gave the rest of the fleets hope in the face of Olympic odds and gods.
After the Champagne and sunshine of Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday brought the wind and tonic to the 57th Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères – TPM. A mixture of the conditions and the first day of the three-day “Elimination phase” brought the best out of the best. Strong easterlies of 23-25 knots, gusting to 28, brought choppy waves, cloud cover and squalls. This was the other face of sailing here in the Mediterranean and the sailors could feel the change of pressure on their cheeks as they arrived in the morning and got ready on the beach or in the Base Nautique.
If Monday was Champagne sailing in Hyères, Tuesday was a Mediterranean Millésimé - the vintage. If you created an exceptional blend capturing one side of sailing in Hyères - and you did not want to try and bottle the Mistral - it might look something like this. Bright bobbing sails stretching across the Bay of Hyères as far as the eye could see between the Giens peninsula and the Îles d’Or with the ESE wind of 8-12 knots gradually shifting right under the influence of the thermal currents as the land heated up faster than the sea.