Palma, April 1.- Sailors were faced again with difficult weather conditions
in the bay of Palma. NW conditions, 8 to 12 knots, and many wind shifts put
all competitors to the test. 
  The most exciting race tomorrow will probably be in the 470 women in the
battle for victory between French team Ingrid Petitjean and Nadège Douroux
and Italian sailors Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol, tied in first and
second place respectively. Petitjean said “tomorrow will be a great day”.
The French sailor who would have liked to sail another race today is aware
it will be difficult to beat the Italian team. Giovanna Micol hopes that
after “a long day” like today, there will be more wind tomorrow to enjoy
good racing and be able to win.
  French sailors Pierre Leboucher and Vicent Garos lead the 470 men fleet
followed closely by Israeli team Gideon and Eran who still stand a chance of
being the winners of the class. Spanish pre-Olympic team Onan Barreiros and
Aarón Sarmiento, at only 3 points from the podium, will try their best
position to try and take third place from Austrian competitor Belcher.
Javier Hernández from Spain will sail tomorrow as Laser class leader with 8
points advantage over second classified Tonci Stipanovic from Croatia and 11
over New Zealand competitor Mike Bullot, in third place. 
  In Laser Radial, the victory will probably be decided between Croatian
sailor Tina Mihelic and Veronika Fenclova from the Czech Republic while
Susana Romero, in third place, still stands a chance to win.
It was not a good day for Rafa Trujillo with bad results in today’s races
making him drop down to fourth overall and seeing Croatian sailor Ivan
Gaspic take the lead. Second place is for British sailor Edward Wright
followed by French sailor Jonathan Lobert.  
  France and Great Britain will fight tomorrow for the top places of the
podium. Emmanuel Dyen and Sthépane Christidis and Morgan Lagraviere and Yann
Rocherieux are first and fourth respectively while British teams Stevie
Morris and Ben Rhodes and Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh are second and
third.
  Another close top 3 in the Star class with Italian team Negri Diego and
Fernandino Colaninno still in the lead followed at only three points by
Swiss team Flavio Marazzi and Enrico de Maria and four points by Swedish
sailors Fredrik Lööf and Johan Tillander. 
  No races were sailed today in RS:X women and men so the overall standings
remain the same as yesterday. Italian sailor Alessandra Sensini in the lead
followed by Bryony Shaw from Great Britain and Italian sailor Laura Linares.
And top 3 places in RS:X men for Greek sailor Byron Kokkalanis, Sahar Zubari
from Israel and Tom Ashley from New Zealand.
  The Women Match Race final will see Renee Groeneveld’s Dutch team against
Nicky Souter’s team from Australia. Groeneveld won over Sally Barkow’s US
team and Souter beat Lucy MacGregor’s team from Great Britain in the
semi-finals. The victory will be tomorrow for the best of five matches.
  Victory for second consecutive year for Thierry Schmitter in Paralympic
class 2.4MR. Second place has been for British sailor Helena Lucas and third
place for Andre Rademaker.