After six races, Maria Erdi is still leading the World Sailing Championships five loops in The Hague in the former Laser, now ILCA class.
On Wednesday, the bronze medalist and two-time Hungarian Olympian at the March European Championships finished 17th in heat five and fourth in heat six. You can pronounce the first score as the worst score, so you’re at the beginning of the field with 20 ranking points. Belgian Emma Blaskhart comes in second place with 25 points and Australian Casey Emino is in third place with 33 points. The Hungarian federation’s report notes that Maria Erdi is supported by, among others, the gold medalist of the Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 world champion, Anne-Marie Rendom of Denmark, who is currently in fourth place, and the three-time Olympic medalist, this year’s European champion, Dutch Marit Baumeister, currently ranked fifth.
The men’s fifth race did not start until 3pm, as the start was postponed several times due to unfavorable wind conditions. Jonathan Vadnai made his way from 50th to 34th, then finished sixth, so he finished 17th overall. His older brother Benjamin Fadnai, who had been there at the previous two Olympics, finished 51st with 32nd and 39th places.
In this boat class, there are 16 quotas available for each gender in the Paris Olympics, so they can be taken from every country. Mária Érdi is currently the first, and Jonatán Vadnai is 14th in the country ranking. From the fifth race, all three Hungarians are already in the gold group, and after ten races the top ten can start the medal race.
More than 1,200 competitors take part in the World Cup, which takes place every four years and includes ten boat classes – plus classes for sailors with limited mobility – and most places in Paris are sold out.
