ItalVela: what a start for Mattia Camboni and Marta Maggetti

If there was a good way to start the Olympics Mattia Camboni and Marta Maggetti have found it: the two Italian RS:X athletes are both in third position, although for Camboni it is actually a fourth since he is tied with Kirian Badloe of the Netherlands, who had a better partial in the last race of the day. Also on the water was the debut for the Italians of Silvia Zennaro in the women’s Laser; the Yellow Flames athlete is currently in 15th position after three races.

The day was meteorologically very complex on the Enoshima race course (listen again to our live coverage with Meteomed’s Riccardo Ravagnan recounting the characteristics of the course), with light winds of less than 10 knots, and a difficult course to interpret.

The men’s boards raced in winds of 8 knots in the first race, dropped to 7 in the second race and returned over 10 knots in the third and final race. Civitavecchia’s Mattia Camboni has been consistently in the top positions, and has hit three positive 4-2-4 . Leading the way was Switzerland’s Mateo Sanz Lanz (1-1-9), second was Spain’s Angel Granda-Roque (2-4-13), and third ex-aequo with Camboni was world and European champion Kiran Badloe of the Netherlands (5-7-1).

RS:X Women’s – The women’s boards ran the first two races in winds of 10 knots, and the last race in winds dropping to 7 knots. Cagliari’s Marta Maggetti led three top races on a difficult course where all the favorites missed at least one race. With the day’s three 6-3-3 placings Marta is third overall, behind France’s Charline Picon, Rio 2016 gold medalist (1-6-2), and Poland’s Zofia Noceti-Klapacka (4-1-14). For the third round there is a protest just between the Frenchwoman and the Polishwoman that could change the ranking.

Laser Radial – First race in 8-9 knot winds, Silvia Zennaro finishes 13th. Then a wait of about 1 hour for the wind to return and rise to 10 knots. In this second trial Zennaro found himself far behind and made a remarkable comeback, finishing 20th. In the overall standings she is 15th, 7 points behind the top-10. First was Germany’s Svenja Weger (5-1), second was Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom, Rio 2016 bronze medalist (6-5), and third was Croatia’s Elena Vorobeva (11-2).