World number #1 ranked Mat Belcher and Will Ryan lead the 470 World Championship and Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification series on Enoshima Bay in Japan, and based on the current scoreboard, Fremantle pair Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries have put Australia inside the top six nations vying for a country place at Tokyo 2020.

Stunning track conditions delivered perfect 470 racing on Wednesday August 7: breeze up to 16 knots in the afternoon, building waves to surf and the Oscar flag up allowing unlimited pumping, meaning there were plenty of exhausted sailors back ashore.

Day four highlights

Men’s 470

Belcher/Ryan’s 2,2,3, results put them one point ahead of the chasing Spanish pair of Xammar/Rodriguez.

AST coach Victor Kovalenko said overnight: “We had three races today in the same direction of wind, 200 degrees 10-14 knots, with big shift and current impacts. Mathew and William had good, classic starts and were the most consistent boat in the fleet. Aus11 had good upwind strategies but the young Spanish were quite fast downwind. Tomorrow we have the last three races in gold fleet racing, we hope again on the Sagami course.”

In the silver group, Chris Charlwood and Josh Dawson from WA posted the best results of their series - 6,3,11.

Women’s 470

Fremantle duo Jerwood/de Vries, one of the teams pushing hard for Olympic country qualification, made it back into the top 10 of the 39-boat women’s 470 fleet. “We have three more races tomorrow, we are looking to keep improving and fighting for every point,” the team posted after racing.

Based on Wednesday’s results, the countries inside the top six nation qualifying places - in order of position - are Poland, Australia, Netherlands, Brazil, Israel and Germany. Just a handful of points separating the teams gunning for both nation qualification and Friday’s top ten medal race line-up guarantees another adrenalin-fuelled day tomorrow, Thursday 8 August.

Website: http://2019worlds.470.org/en/default/races/race

Live tracking

Results

Men (52 boats)
1st Mat Belcher & Will Ryan (4), 4, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 = 16 points
32nd Chris Charlwood & Josh Dawson 20, (25), 12, 6, 20, 6, 3, 11 = 78 points

Women (39 boats)
9th Nia Jerwood & Monique de Vries 7, 12, (27), 15, 19, 4, 8, 11 = 76 points