 |
2004 HARKEN LASER WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIPS Bitez, Bodrum, Turkey |
Laser Senior Worlds 10 - 19 May 2004
Report: Day 2
7
hours spent on the water was worth it for both competitors and race committee
in the Harken Laser World Championship. The championship finally got
underway with two races completed after a delayed start and one race having
to be abandoned and resailed for one of the 2 fleets.
In
8 to 9 knots the yellow fleet were recalled on their first start and then
started under a black flag. Michail Aristeidis from Greece led at the first
mark from Maciej Grabowski POL and Michael Bullot NZL. Aristeidis extended his lead throughout most of the race.
Bullot passed Grabowski on the loop and closed on Aristedis for a short
period on the last reach of the trapezoid course but this was not enough to
threaten the Greek. The blue fleet race was abandoned after the wind shifted
40 degrees on one side of the first downwind causing chaos at the downwind
gate.
Hamish
Pepper from New Zealand was first to show at mark one on a re-set course
in winds of 13 to 15 knots. By the end of the first downwind, defending
champion Gustavo Lima from Portugal had caught Pepper and they both rounded
opposite marks of the gate at the same time with Michael Blackburn just behind.
At the reach mark Pepper looked comfortable and Blackburn had edged
ahead of Lima. Lima had a powerful downwind leg to overtake Blackburn and
close on Pepper but it was not enough to dislodge Pepper.
The
second yellow fleet race, in similar winds, saw Matias del Solar from Chile
leading at the first mark from Mathieu Murati from France. Murati found a
shift on the left halfway up the second windward leg to pass the Chilean and
then lead for to the finish after a 39th in his first race.
Mathias
Rieck from Germany led the second race from start to finish which together
with his ninth in the first race places him 3rd overall, a good start to his
chances of achieving his national Olympic committee's tough qualification
criteria.
In
a day of mixed fortunes several top sailors scored a bad result. Lima was
one of these who scored a bad race, getting trapped on the left hand side
of the course in his second race and finding himself well back in the fleet
which even a defending champion could not recover from. However, in this highly competitive fleet with 9 nations
from 5 continents in the top ten, there is a long way to go.
A mixed forecast for the remainder of the championship will most likely
see a few more stars have at least one bad race.
Overall
results after protest:
1
NZL PEPPER Hamish
9,0
2 AUS
BLACKBURN Michael
9,0
3 GER
RIECK Mathias
10,0
4 BRA
SCHEIDT Robert
11,0
5 RSA
BLANCKENBERG Gareth
12,0
6 FRA
LE BRETON Thomas
15,0
7 AUT
GERITZER Andreas
16,0
8 GBR HOWARD
Mark James
17,0
9 NZL
BULLOT Michael
18,0
10 CRO
VUJASINOVIC Milan
21,0
11 SWE
SUNESON Karl
22,0
12 CRO
KLJAKOVIC GASPIC Ivan
23,0
13 CRO
RADELIC Luka
25,0
14 POL
RUDAWSKI Marcin
27,0
15 GRE
MICHAIL Aristeidis
28,0
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