Laser Worlds

Gets underway in Bitez, Turkey this week

The Laser World Championship gets underway in Bitez, Turkey this week. Following a practice race on Wednesday day qualification races will be held each day from Thursday, 13 May until Sunday, 16. The finals will run from Monday 17 May until Wednesday 19 May. Two races will be held on each day.

The Laser being a rather popular class, there are comprehensive rules governing the allocation of places. 2003 World Champion Portugal's Gustavo Lima automatically qualifies as do the top 19 from the Europeans. This includes Britain's Paul Goodison, Dan Holman and Ed Wright and Belgium no4 ranker Philippe Bergmans. North America is allocated 13 spots, including the top five placers from the US Olympic trials. Beyond this there are country allocations according to the size of the paid up membership of the local Laser association. In this the US holds around 2,300-2,400 members and get five of their 13 places from this, closely followed by the UK with 2,000 or so members, also getting five places.

Obviously the focus for some competitors will be a last opportunity to qualify their nation to compete in the Laser for the Olympic Games. At present 32 of the 40 spots in the Laser class have been allocated. At present countries who have yet to qualify include Bermuda, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic, China, etc.

Competitor list

Name	Nat	ISF Rank
BUS Frits	AHO
SELMANE Tahar	ALG
ROMERO Diego	ARG	3
BLACKBURN Michael	AUS	2
CASEY Brendan	AUS	11
IRONMONGER Ricky	AUS
SLINGSBY Tom	AUS	23
GERITZER Andreas	AUT	20
BERGMANS Philippe	BEL	5
GLORIE Bernard	BEL
KIRKLAND Alexander	BER
DESUKEVICH Sergei	BLR
COUTO Eduardo	BRA
FANUCCHI Carlos Eduardo	BRA
FONTES FERREIRA DA SILVA Bruno	BRA
GODOY Sérgio	BRA
PERDICARIS Andreas	BRA
SCHEIDT Robert	BRA	1
STREPPEL Andre	BRA
AL KOOHEJI Sami	BRN
GEORGIEV Alexander	BUL
MINKOV Aleksandar	BUL
CHILDS Andrew	CAN	45
HAMILTON Trevor	CAN
HAVERSTOCK John	CAN
HIGGINS Conner	CAN
LEA Andrew	CAN
LEIGH Michael	CAN	31
LUTTMER Bernard	CAN	28
ROMANKO John	CAN
DEL SOLAR Matias	CHI	50
CAI Qiushui	CHN
SHEN Sheng	CHN
TANG Jun	CHN
ARAPOV Mate	CRO
KLJAKOVIC GASPIC Ivan	CRO
KUZMANIC Tonko	CRO
RADELIC Luka	CRO	38
STIPANOVIC Tonci	CRO
VUJASINOVIC Milan	CRO
ECONOMIDES Constantinos	CYP
PAPADOPOULOS Haris	CYP
CUTKA Jan	CZE
TRCKA Martin	CZE
HVALSOE Mikkel	DEN
NYHOLM Anders	DEN	29
ULRIKKEHOLM Morten	DEN
AGUAYO Raul	DOM
MARTINIE André	DOM
HERNANDEZ Javier	ESP
MARTINEZ Luis	ESP	22
SARMIENTO Mariano	ESP
TABERNERO Angelo	ESP
KARPAK Deniss	EST
SEPP Mati	EST
SUOMALAINEN Roope	FIN	16
WESTMAN Fredrik	FIN	24
LE BRETON Thomas	FRA
MURATI Mathieu	FRA
STEYAERT Jeremie	FRA	40
BAILLIE STRONG Charles	GBR
BROOKS Andy	GBR
CHANDLER Barney	GBR
COMMANDER Andrew	GBR	32
GOODISON Paul	GBR	3
HIVEY David	GBR
HOLMAN Daniel	GBR	34
HOWARD Mark James	GBR	13
POWELL Stephen	GBR
SMITH James	GBR
STYLES Hugh	GBR
REGER Thomas	GER
RIECK Mathias	GER
SCHLONSKI Alexander	GER	43
STANJEK Robert	GER
CHIMONAS Evangelos	GRE	27
MANOLAKIS Antonis	GRE
MICHAIL Aristeidis	GRE	48
FAZAKAS Gyorgy	HUN
CHOUDHARY Rajesh	IND
JOHAL Nachhatar	IND
CRAIG Roger	IRL
FITZPATRICK Rory	IRL	42
JONES Gavan	IRL
GEIRSSON Hafsteinn	ISL
MESERITZ Eshed	ISR
BARROWS Thomas	ISV
PITTS Timothy	ISV
GIOVANELLI Giacomo	ITA
NEGRI Diego	ITA	21
POGGI Giorgio	ITA
REGOLO Michele	ITA
IIJIMA Yoichi	JPN
NAGAI Hisaki	JPN
SUZUKI Kunio	JPN
KIM Ho Kon	KOR
KIM Jung Gon	KOR
ALVIKIS Madar	LAT
GUZYS Giedrius	LTU
SCHMIT Marc	LUX
LIM Kevin	MAS
COBZAC Sergiu	MDA
BON Sander	NED
BOUWMEESTER Roelof	NED
DE HAAS Marc	NED	47
NIEUWENHUYS Arne	NED
POSTMA Pieter-Jan	NED	19
MOBERG Peer	NOR	17
WORRE Ola André	NOR
BLAKEY Matthew	NZL
BULLOT Michael	NZL
MURDOCH Andrew	NZL	25
PEPPER Hamish	NZL
NICOLINI Augusto	PER
RAMBERG Johann	PER
GRABOWSKI Maciej	POL	15
RUDAWSKI Marcin	POL
LIMA Gustavo	POR	4
LOBATO Francisco	POR
PISLARU Razvan Mihai	ROM
BLANCKENBERG Gareth	RSA	6
BOZHEDOMOV Yury	RUS
SEMERKHANOV Maxim	RUS
ZHBANKOV Timofey	RUS
JULIE Allan	SEY
TAN Stanley:  Kheng Siong	SIN
ZBOGAR Vasilij	SLO	7
BOTTONI Christoph	SUI
LARSEN Steve	SUI
VALASEK Marek	SVK
ANDERSSON Erik	SWE
LASSENIUS Fredrik	SWE	35
NILSSON Magnus	SWE
SÖDERSTRÖM Erik	SWE
SUNESON Karl	SWE	8
SOOKUDOM Pontep	THA
ALPAGUT Alp	TUR
MUSLUBAS Kemal	TUR
TUFEKCI Ali Kemal	TUR
ORLOV Yuri	UKR
AGUERRE Miguel	URU
FOGLIA Alejandro	URU
LEWIS Andrew	USA
MENDELBLATT Mark	USA	18
NOONAN Robert	USA
BILBAO Johnny	VEN
RUIZ Jose Miguel	VEN