Over in Santander, Spain, the top RS:X racers from around the world have gathered for the ISAF world champions.

Women’s RS:X

Vive la France is that can be said about the amazing performance from Charline Picon who has already won gold in the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships. She still needs to sail a Medal Race though, but it won’t affect her gold medal.

It was a catastrophic day for Polish Zofia Klepacka who went from second overnight to tenth overall after extremely poor racing (12,16,17) on Telefonica course and is therefore out of the medal hunt.

Two experienced windsurfers Maayan Davidovich (ISR) and home sailor Marina Alabau have climbed little by little throughout the regatta and are into second and third with two points separating them.

Britain’s Bryony Shaw is chasing the leaders but with ten points to climb it’s going be a tough task for her. Still the trickiest Duna Medal Race course can make a significant change in the expectations of the audience.

Chinese Jiahui Wu is fifth overall and is followed by Flavia Tartaglini (Italy), Lilian De Geus from Netherlands and Britain’s Isobel Hamilton with their final positions to be decided on the Medal Race outcome

Two brilliant races (4,1) were not enough to help Spain’s Blanca Manchon jump into the Medal Race as she missed out by a tiny three points .

Men’s RS:X

Three races were scheduled today for RS:X class on one of the furthest courses out, Telefonica, but they were sailed back to back extremely fast in the Men’s and Women’s Gold fleet.

A tricky south to south westerly breeze with big waves and strong current did not change the top RS:X Men, but made some adjustments to the top ten.

2013 RS:X World Champion and 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Julien Bontemps (FRA) had another brilliant day (4,1,4) to have almost unbeatable 15-points lead over second place Piotr Myszka (POL). He plans to check out the Duna course before the Medal Race and then rely on his good and experienced sailing brain and technique.

Myszka scored two good ones (2,6) and discarded a 15th to have a three point advantage over his team mate and London-2012 Bronze medallist Przemyslaw Miarczynski, who’s kept consistent to protect his third position finishing 7,5,7.

France’s Thomas Goyard (9,2,10) and Byron Kokkalanis from Greece (5,3,13) both had good solid racing up until the last race and sit fourth and fifth overall. Those two have a chance to get to the podium if they sail a perfect Medal Race or the Polish lose their grip.

The last five men in the top ten unfortunately cannot deliver a medal for themselves, but can definitely affect the podium picture.

2013 RSX World Champion Britain’s Nick Dempsey hasn’t performed in his usual style at this event, six overall is obviously not his desirable place but two great last races (4,2) are a cool comfort for him.

A frustrating eighth overall for the London 2012 Olympic Gold medallist Dorian Van Rijsselberge could be possibly explained by a romantic mood after his recent marriage with beautiful Sasha Plavsic.

It’s been a pretty impressive performance for the French Team who have four Men’s RS:X sailors in the Medal Race.

RS:X Reports courtesy of Olga Maslivets, International RS:X Class Association