Close win for Giles Scott in Palma
Giles Scott (GBR) took a narrow one place victory over Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) in the double medal race finale to the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofa MAPFRE in Palma de Mallorca on Saturday. Race wins went to British team mates Andrew Mills (GBR) and Mark Andrews (GBR).
Two short medal races were sailed to trial a new scoring and race format for the week, which judging by feedback received so far, most of the sailors are not very comfortable with.
Postma took the first advantage beating Scott in the first medal race to narrow Scott’s lead to just one point. It came down to a tense match race in the second heat to decide the winner. Scott deployed better tactics at the start of the final race to get the better of Dutchman „It was quite stressful with the double medal race. Matt had a little bit on trying to work out the maths to see if we could do the take-out in the pre-start. I think he got it alright and it came good.â€
„We needed to get a decent result in the first race, and then see how the points were, and as it was I finished a place behind Postma so it came down to who beat who in the final race.â€
„PJ and I then match raced at the start of the second race, I finally succeeded in forcing him into an uncomfortable position and took a safe advance over him. We had a little bit of an engagement in the pre-start which was good fun and fortunately I came off the better. He also made it a little bit easier for me half way round when he capsized.â€
On the scoring format, „It did work out all right for me but I don’t really like it as I prefer consistency over the week and the varied conditions to be recognised in the results.â€
„I am happy to see that the break I have taken has not affected my performances Now I can go back to America’s cup racing feeling good about it and guilt free.“
Meanwhile Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) posted the best other scorings of the day to move up one place to take home the bronze, though with more than double the points of the two leaders.
Results:
1 GBR 41Giles Scott17 (3, 3)
2 NED 842Pieter Jan Postma22 (2, 5)
3 SLO 573Vasilij Zbogar45 (5, 4)
4 FRA 112Jonathan Lobert48 (4, 7)
5 GBR 85Andrew Mills51 (7, 1)
6 GBR 88Mark Andrews58 (1, 8)
7 NZL 16Andrew Murdoch65 (8, 4)
8 NZL 24Josh Junior70 (6, 9)
9 AUS 1Brendan Casey79 (OCS, 6)
10 POL 17Piotr Kula82 (9, 10)
Full results: https://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/laregata/vertodoslosresultados/id/1/idsc2r/29
Event website: www.trofeoprincesasofia.org ( https://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/ )
Photos: Pavlina Soukupova
