Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Day 10
by Richard Palfreyman 12 Dec 2011 14:58 GMT
3-18 December 2011
Strong south easterly winds of up to 22 knots, heavy showers, thunder and lightning shaped Day 10 of the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships as the 49er, Women’s 470, Men’s RS:X and Laser classes started their title campaigns in the second week of competition.
49er
Denmark’s Jonas Warrer and Soeren Hansen (DEN) and Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) are the joint overall leaders after the opening day of 49er racing on Monday.
Warrer and Hansen comfortably finished first in race one on Monday for the Yellow fleet by 85 seconds from Denmark’s Peter Andersen and Nicolai Thorsell, who placed second.
John Pink and Rick Peacock (GBR) dominated in race two but only managed to finish six seconds ahead of Emil Toft Nielsen and Simon Toft Nielsen (DEN).
Tobias Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann (GER) took out the third race, only just beating New Zealand’s Burling and Tuke, while Pink and Peacock (GBR) finished a disappointing 16th after their win in the previous race.
“The first two races were really good until the boat capsized. That delayed us,” Peacock said. “It took us a while to get the boat back up. After that mishap, we bounced back. Overall, I'm impressed with how we raced.”
In the Blue fleet, David Evans and Edward Powys (GBR) lead for most of race one, finishing first by 13 seconds ahead of Matt McGovern and Ryan Seaton (IRL).
Stephane Christidis and Emmanuel Dyen (FRA) won race 2, while Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel (GER) were second.
World number one duo Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) finally showed some of their best to win the last Blue fleet race of the day. Noe Delpech and Julien Dortoli (FRA) were second. The Australians are tenth overall.
The 49ers are scheduled to continue racing on Tuesday at 1200 Perth time on the Owen course.
Women’s 470
‘Big’ sums up the opening day of Women’s 470 with big movers, big surprises and big leads.
Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata finished the day in first place overall followed closely by Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) with Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes (GBR) rounding out the top three.
The Japanese sailors were the big movers, giving stellar performances in both races.
Race one saw them come from 14th around the first mark to finish third, only 14 seconds behind Natalia Ivanova and Diana Krutskikh (RUS), who were second.
World number two Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes maintained a 200m lead throughout race one to finish comfortably two minutes ahead of Ivanova and Krutskikh (RUS).
Kondo and Tabata improved in race two, taking the lead at the start and holding it to the end.
If Kondo and Tabata were the big movers, the big surprise was World number one pair, Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving (USA), finishing 27th at the end of the first day of Women’s 470 fleet racing.
Women’s 470 racing for races three and four continues Tuesday at 1430 local time on the Success course.
Men’s RS:X
Israel’s Nimrod Mashich and Piotr Myszka of Poland share top spot on the leader board after the opening day of racing in the men’s RS:X.
Both men are on three points with a win and a second after two races with Dorian Rijsselberghe (NED) and Przemyslaw Miarczynski (POL) behind them on overall points.
Yellow fleet
In race 1, World number one Myszka was neck and neck with rival Polish competitor Przemyslaw Miarczynski in the second upwind leg, but Miarczynski eventually had to settle for fourth.
World number 12 Tom Ashley (NZL) finished second after a tacking duel with Eliot Carney (GBR).
Carney placed 3rd, ahead of his teammate Nick Dempsey, who despite sailing strongly mid-race, finished 8th.
The second yellow race was a success all round for the two top Polish sailors as Miarczynski shot to first place with Myszka in his wake.
Windsurfing veteran Joao Rodrigues, who came third, is hoping he can make London 2012 his sixth Olympic Games.
Blue fleet
Dorian Rijsselberghe (NED) cemented his status as “one to watch” for these World Championships.
In the final leg of the first race Rijsselberghe took advantage of the light winds to move swiftly past world Number two Nimrod Mashich (ISR) to win.
But Rjisselberghe lost out to Mashich and Tae Hoon Lee (KOR) in the blue fleet’s second race.
The men’s RS:X is scheduled to continue on Centre course from 1230 Perth time on Tuesday.
Laser
The three-time Laser champion and 2010 ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year, Tom Slingsby (AUS), swamped the field in the opening race of the day but made an uncharacteristic error in the second to finish sixth with the mistake costing him top spot on the leaderboard.
Slingsby has seven points after the first day of Laser racing, one behind Blue fleet’s Jesper Stalheim (SWE).
“I guess it was my fault, I should have looked where the top mark was,” Slingsby said. “I tacked off the line, went for a few minutes, then tacked back and was over-laid by a long way, hundreds of metres. I rounded in the high teens or low twenties and was able to pull to six.
“All in all I didn’t have a drop today and that was the goal, I’m in the hunt.”
Slingsby was 35 seconds clear of Kacper Zieminski (POL) in race one with Sweden’s Rasmus Myrgren a further 30 seconds back. Australia’s Ashley Brunning finished the day with two fourths to put him equal third overall.
Poland’s Karol Porozynsky scored a fifth and a second to lead the Red fleet with seven points from Germany’s Simon Grodeluschen on eight points with a seventh and a win.
The Yellow and Blue fleets raced in 13-16 knot winds while the Red fleet had consecutive races in the late afternoon with 17-22 knot winds under a leaden sky and frequent lightning flashes.
Laser racing is scheduled to continue on the Parmelia course from 1200 local on Tuesday.
Star
Another outstanding performance from the British Olympic Champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson consolidated their first place position in the overall standings after race four in the Star fleet.
Percy and Simpson have a total of 16 points while Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (USA) are on 28 points, with Germany’s Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen just behind them on 30.
“We had a good day today. We weren’t going very well but we hung in and fought hard,” Percy said. “My body is a bit bruised and battered for it but it’s okay”.
In race three, Norwegian team Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen took first followed closely by Aimilios Papathanasiou and Antonios Tsotras of Greece.
The fight for third was close with Aimilios Papathanasiou and Antonios Tsotras of Greece just making it, putting Germany’s Johannes Babendererde and Timo Jacobs in fourth place.
The outcome of race four saw the Swedish pair Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen take first place followed by Brazil’s Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada.
Third went to Ireland’s Peter O’Leary and David Burrows while British pair Percy and Simpson were fourth.
With six more races until the medal race the British are aware of the obstacles to come.
“There is still a long way to go, we’re not super quick, so not confident we will get too far but we will keep battling to the end,” he said.
Star racing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday on the Leighton course from 1300 Perth time.
Women’s Match Racing
Racing remained close between teams competing in the stage two Round Robin with the competitors aiming to increase their standings before the end of the repechage round on Tuesday.
It was a good day for New Zealand’s Stephanie Hazard, with wins against Great Britain’s Lucy Macgregor and Finland’s Silija Lehtinen.
With the wind again proving to be fickle, the course was changed to a four lap configuration, meaning the races had to be broken up a bit with a gap between the first two and last two matches.
Increasingly bad weather in the late afternoon forced the race committee to postpone the last two matches of Flight 74 until Tuesday.
At the end of Monday’s racing, the top teams in stage two were Macgregor (GBR) on 9 wins and 2 losses, with the two Australian teams close behind, both on 8 wins and 3 losses.
France’s Claire Leroy will go into quarterfinals in top spot after winning her two matches against USA-1 in the seeding matches held earlier in the day. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA-1) will be second in the Gold Group, followed by Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) in third and Mandy Mulder (NED-1) in fourth position.
Stage two Round Robin repechage continues on Tuesday with the remaining flights scheduled from 1200 local.
Day 10 Highlights Video:
www.Perth2011.com
Irish 49er in 5th place at ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth (from Fiona Bolger, Irish Sailing Association)
In very unseasonable rain & wind conditions at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth, the Irish crew Ryan Seaton & Matt McGovern in the 49er skiff are in 5th place having finished 2nd, 4th & 11th in first three races of their event. 14 nations will qualify in the 49er fleet for the Olympics in Perth.
The Star duo of Peter O’Leary and David Burrows finished 33rd & 3th in day two of their regatta lying 9th overall. The first 11 nations in the Star class will qualify for the Olympics at this event.
In the men’s Laser class James Espey is lying 56th in the 147 strong fleet having scored an 18th & 22nd in the two races of the day. The first 35 nations will qualify for the Olympics at this event.
Commenting on today’s performance James O’Callaghan, ISA Performance Director stated: ‘A very solid start to the regatta from the 49er team and great to see them racing at the top of the fleet. Peter and David in the Star have used up their discard today but a great comeback in the second race keeps them in the hunt for the rest of the week.’
Second Group of Fleet Racing Classes on the Water (from Dana Paxton, US Sailing)
After an exciting conclusion to the first half of this event on Sunday, the ISAF Sailing World Championships is now in full swing for the second group of fleet racing classes: Men’s RS:X, Laser, Women’s 470 and 49er. The Star class continued its series from Sunday, and Women’s Match Racing continued with the seeding matches for semi-finals.
The event serves as the second and final U.S. Olympic Team Selection Event in the nine Olympic fleet racing events. It is also the country qualification regatta where USA will look to secure an Olympic berth in all 10 Olympic events.
Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, Fla.) and Brian Fatih (Miami, Fla.) now stand in second overall in the Star class, after scoring a 9-8 on a day plagued with gusting wind and approaching rain. They are 12 points behind leaders Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) after four races.
In Women’s Match Racing, it was another long day on the water. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.), sailing as “Team Maclaren” matched against France’s Claire Leroy in a “best-to-two-wins” and lost two straight matches. They will be the second seed in the semi-final round.
For Genny Tulloch (Sausalito, Calif.), Alice Manard Leonard (East Haven, Conn.) and Jenn Chamberlin (Washington, D.C.), they continued in the repechage round, and finished the day with 6 wins, 6 losses.
Excitement came during flight 73 when Tulloch’s “Team GETSailing” matched against Denmark’s Lotte Medlgaard Pedersen. Tulloch was given a penalty at the beginning of the match, but lead most of the match. On the last downwind leg, Tulloch forced a penalty on Pedersen and cancelled out her penalty. They matched to the finish, but it was Tulloch’s team crossing the line for the win.
In the Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance, 49er skiff, Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (North Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla.) began their series with three races and went 8-6-15 and find themselves in 17th overall in the 67-boat fleet. They race committee divides the fleet daily and then compiles the scores into an overall listing.
Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) had a good day in the heavy wind conditions Women’s 470 (Women's Two Person Dinghy). They scored a 12th in the first race and 3rd in the second to finish 5th overall in the 48-boat fleet. Erin Maxwell (Wilton, Conn.) and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (New York/Fishers Island, N.Y.) went 28-28 for 27th overall.
In the Laser (Men’s One Person Dinghy), College Sailor of the Year and US Sailing Development Team member Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) had a standout day with a 5th and 4th to stand 9th overall in the ultracompetitive fleet. USSTAG finishes: Clay Johnson (Toms River, N.J.) 17th; Rob Crane (Darien, Conn.) 45th; with American Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla.), the current Trials leader on points, in 53rd.
Robert Willis (Chicago, Ill.) scored two top-10s (9-7) to collect 16th overall, while Ben Barger (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is in 34th in the Men’s RS:X (Men’s Windsurfer).