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Slingsby world title defence underway

 

Slingsby world title defence underway

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Tom Slingsby has gotten his World Championship defence off to a solid start following the first day of Laser racing at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Champion.

Tom Slingsby has gotten his World Championship defence off to a solid start following the first day of Laser racing at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Champion.
 
The triple World Champion began his regatta in style, winning the first race by a comfortable margin before finishing sixth in race two, leaving him second overall, just a point behind day one leader Jasper Stalheim of Sweden.
 
“The first race was perfect, I had a good start, went to the right side of the course, it was just myself and the Polish guy over there and we ended up first and second at the top mark,” said Slingsby. “We were able to extend from there and I had a comfortable lead.
 
“The second race wasn’t so good, I guess it was my fault, I should have looked where the top mark was,” he said. “I tacked off the line, went for a few minutes and the 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,” he said.
 
Slingsby said that he’s looking forward to the challenge the week ahead will present.
 
“I’m used to pressure at every event, to me this is just another event, I really want to win because it’s a big one but I’ll sail exactly the same as I always do.
 
The current world number one has spent the last few weeks training in Fremantle, spending much of the first week of the regatta keeping an eye on the progress of his fellow Australians.
 
Fellow Australian Ashley Brunning had a strong opening day and sits fifth overall after a pair of fourths, with Jared West beginning his week well with a 10th and a third leaving him in 16th.
 
Ryan Palk is 31st overall, ahead of Tom Burton in 36th, James Burman in 57th and West Australian Matthew Wearn is 60th. 
 
The 49er fleet also hit for water for the first time with Australian’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen having a mixed day, finishing 10th in the opening two races before bouncing back well with a race win to round out the day, leaving them 10th overall.
 
“It was a typical start to an event for us,” said Outteridge. “We had two tough races and got caught up in a bit of traffic and had to do a turn in race one and then we had to capsize to avoid an incident in the second.
 
“We managed to get two 10ths out of the 35 boat fleet so it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “We had a break then while the other fleet did their third race before going back for one more when it was a bit windier and we came away with a first which makes the day a bit better than it started.”
 
Will and Sam Phillips are 19th after the first three races with Steven Thomas and Jasper Warren the next best placed Australians in 32nd.
 
The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew of Nicky Souter, Jessica Eastwell and Katie Spithill finished the day with three wins and a loss, to move into a tie for second position with fellow Aussies Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty.
 
Souter and crew had wins against their Swedish, Brazilian and American opponents with a loss against the Spanish crew.
 
“Today was the most difficult day of sailing we’ve ever had together,” said Souter. “Because of the direction the wind was coming from the course was set up across the harbour which is pretty narrow so we were doing four lap races, all we seemed to be doing was putting the spinnaker up and then taking it down, it was full on, you couldn’t stop for a second.
 
“It was a fun and challenging day and we’ve now got four races left to finish the round robin,” she said. “We know that in this competition anything can happen and I’m sure the results will shift around tomorrow, we know that we have to go out there and put in some good races tomorrow and get the job done.”
 
Price, Curtis and Whitty had just one race scheduled on day 10 of racing for the Women’s Match Racing competition, recording a win against America’s Genny Tulloch.
 
The win leaves the Australian crew with eight wins and three losses, with four races remaining in the repechage round robin for them.
 
West Australians Sasha Ryan and Chelsea Hall are leading the way for the Australians in the 470 women’s class, ending day one in 24th. Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell are 33rd, Carrie Smith and Ella Clark are 43rd and Aurora Patterson and Tara McCall are 47th.
 
In the RS:X men’s class Queensland’s Luke Baillie is the best placed Australian in 29th overall after a 13th and a 17th from the first two races, ahead of local sailor Tim Gourlay in 35th, Patrick Vos in 57th, James Levy in 65th, Justin Lord in 79th, Sam Treharne in 81st and Eamon Robertshaw in 87th.
 
The Star class completed another two races on their second day of competition with Paul McKenzie and Phillip Toth the highest placed local crew in 32nd, one place ahead of Mark Bradford and David Giles with Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey in 35th.

Yachting Australia

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