Thirty-seven teams are through to the Gold Fleet at the 470 World Championship in Enoshima, and Spain's Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona head into the finals as overall leaders after five races.
The 2025 World Champions were consistent on day two, finishing first and fourth across Friday's races. "It has been a very difficult second day on paper," said Xammar, who won bronze in these same waters in 2021, "but a very positive one for us. We sailed well and we're happy. Scoring a first and a fifth is better than the target we had set ourselves, so we're very pleased with the day." He added that the championship effectively resets with the finals format. "The important thing is to stay focused and be clear about the key points for the day, as we were today."
Cardona was equally measured. "Tomorrow the championship starts again with this format, but after the two great days we've had, we're feeling good and strong, and we're really looking forward to continuing to do our job."
Germany's Malte Winkel and Bente Batzing produced the standout results of the day, a first and a second, to sit second overall. France's Manon Pennaneac'h and Pierre Williot are third.
Winkel and Batzing have only been sailing together for three months, which makes their position all the more striking. "We teamed up just three months ago, so we had a lot of work to do," said Winkel. "She was already coming from the 470 and had experience from junior events, and it worked out really well from the beginning. We have tried to do a lot of training over the last three months and we are really happy to be here in Japan for the Worlds. As it looks so far, we are not doing too many things wrong, so we are quite happy with that."
The racing itself was anything but clean.
Heavy cloud cover rolled across the race course, scrambling the breeze and making tactical calls feel more like guesswork. "It was really shifty," said Winkel. "We had some big clouds affecting the race course. I don't know what I can say about how it went that well. I think we had quite a lucky hand with our plan before the races. There are definitely some analytical aspects to reading the clouds, but once you were into the race, it was really crazy and you just needed to try to take what you had. We managed that really well today."
Sweden's Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Lindner bounced back after spinnaker damage had hurt them the previous day, returning to the front of the fleet to finish second. Japan's Tetsuya Isozaki and Yurie Seki crossed in third.
Elsewhere across the qualification series, Xammar and Cardona won the opening Blue Fleet race. Junior team Lomane Valade and Julien Bunel continued their excellent form with a second, and Hannah Bristow and James Taylor finished third. Japan's Shunsui Oishi and Wako Yokota won the final Yellow Fleet race, with Winkel and Batzing second. Italy's Elena Berta and Giulio Cattaro took the final Blue Fleet race convincingly. "We had a good start," said the Italian team. "Our strength is that we are not good at just one kind of wind. If we have a good start and sail well, we can get good results."
Matthew Belcher is also on the water in Enoshima. One of the most decorated sailors in 470 history, his presence in the fleet is its own reminder of how deep the class's lineage runs.
