A shift that feels like a victory

“Please wait” was the command for the Olympic 470 fleet yesterday. Because the wind was weak off Marseille, the decisive medal race was postponed in the late afternoon until today (11.43 a.m., ORF 1). For the leading Austrian duo Lara Vadlau and Lukas Mähr, this postponement almost felt like a victory. If there had been little wind, the last race would have been a risky nail-biter. Good sailing weather with fair wind conditions is expected in Marseille today.

“When there is so little wind, sailing becomes a game of chance. We prefer it when it is not chance that decides, but rather performance,” said Mähr yesterday after the announcement of the new program. Another positive for the duo was that the teams did not have to go out on the water to be “fried” in a waiting position at 35 degrees Celsius.

“The day was quite relaxed, now we can build up our concentration again so that we are fully focused in the medal race,” said Vadlau, who was the favorite at the 2016 Games in Rio and came away empty-handed. During the break in competition that followed, she finished her medical studies, and the 30-year-old has been back in the boat since 2021. Her foredeck crew Mähr brings a lot of experience with him.

With David Bargehr he was already third in the 470 World Championships and second in the overall World Cup. It was never enough to qualify for the Olympics in a sailboat, but the 34-year-old was already in action as an ORF expert under the sign of the five rings. “This year I’m finally on the right side of the fence in the mixed zone,” said Mähr about the change from the media to the athlete area.

Fourth place would be enough

After the medal race, Vadlau and Mähr will certainly be in high demand today – hopefully as medal winners. If the two do not finish worse than fourth in the last race, they will not be denied gold.

Sixth place is enough for silver, eighth place is still good for bronze. A total of ten boats are qualified for the medal race. “I’m ignoring all the calculations: you turn around wrong once and there are ten boats ahead of you,” said Vadlau. The fact that stronger winds were forecast for today is a bonus, but we don’t want to overvalue that either. Vadlau: “The lead is nice, but things will really get serious in the medal race.”

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