Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page have taken the lead in the 470 men’s class at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship following a strong third place in the opening race of the finals series.
Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page have taken the lead in the 470 men’s class at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship following a strong third place in the opening race of the finals series.
The defending World Champions and current world number ones went into Thursday’s one and only race tied on points with Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell at the head of the fleet, with both crews winning three races in qualifying.
Belcher and Page had the better result today, with their third place giving them a two point lead over Patience and Bithell, who dropped their 28th.
The Croatian pairing of Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic won the race, with the result leaving them just three points behind the British crew, with four races remaining before the final 10 boat medal race.
“We had a good race and ended up with a third and we’re very happy with that,” said Page. “Obviously with all the good guys in the one race it can be very expensive but to come away with a third, another keeper, and we’re carrying a nine in the bag as a reserve for later on.”
The 470 fleet was due to have a lay day today, but after thunderstorms kept the sailors on shore on Tuesday the race committee took the opportunity to get back onto schedule and change what was going to be the last qualifying race into the opening finals race with the top half of the fleet racing against each other for the first time.
“To have the extra finals race for us was great,” said Belcher. “It showed real forward planning by the committee to be able to get that today and we look forward to the next few days, anything can happen in finals racing and we’re going to keep focusing on ourselves and keep trying to plug away and get results.”
The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew of Nicky Souter, Jessica Eastwell and Katie Spithill have qualified for the repechage round robin, missing out on an automatic spot in the quarter-finals by the smallest of margins, with the Australians finishing third on a count-back.
Souter and crew finished the round robin with 11 wins and just three losses, tied with their American, Russian and Finnish opponents, with America’s Anna Tunnicliffe and Russia’s Ekatrina Skudina going straight through to the quarters.
“We had a four way tie for first place and unfortunately the count-backs didn’t go our way,” said Souter. “We’re really happy with how we sailed, to come out equal first in this round robin is quite good but at the same time it’s a little bit disappointing to just miss out on a count-back to make it through in the top two.
“But the good thing is we’ve made it through to the repechage and have got another chance, there’s plenty more races and I think we’re going to have a big confidence boost knowing we came out pretty much at the top of our group,” she said.
The Australian trio has Friday off the water while group B is finalised with fellow Australians Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty in action on Fremantle Harbour.
Brendan Casey finished 16th in the day’s only Finn race and currently sits 15th overall, just six points off 10th position, with fellow Australian Oliver Tweddell in 24th, just ahead of Anthony Nossiter in 26th.
In the RS:X women’s class Jessica Crisp is 17th overall, with the triple Olympian finishing the day with a 27th, a ninth and a 20th on Bathers Bay.
Krystal Weir is 20th in the Laser Radial class following a mixed day. Weir was disqualified from the opening race for illegal propulsion before a 33rd in race two but bounced back well in the final race to finish 13th.
Fellow Laser Radial sailor Alex South is 36th, ahead of Gabrielle King in 44th, Ashley Stoddart in 47th and Caitlin Elks in 79th.
In the 470 men’s fleet the Australian Sailing Squad crew of Sam Kivell and Will Ryan came back from a tough day five in style with a seventh place finish in the first Gold fleet race moving them to 28th overall.
Racing continues on Friday with the Women’s Match Racing opening round robin wrapping up and the 470 men and Finn classes set to complete two races.
Yachting Australia