Seventh title for Scheidt

Gripping day on the water in Bitez for final races of the Laser World championship

Some of the best conditions of the Harken Laser World Championship provided the perfect setting for an epic final which has become the norm in Laser World championships and the Olympics.

In 13-18 knots of wind the first attempted start was postponed when the wind started to back through 25 degrees and the course was reset. The fleet got away cleanly under a black flag at the third attempt and split evenly up the first windward leg.

Series leader Robert Scheidt had a good start in the middle of the line to leeward of his nearest competitor Michael Blackburn from Australia. Scheidt takes up the story “I managed to pinch him off and he had to tack away. I worked the middle to left and rounded the first mark around tenth with Michael three places behind me”.

Out in front 19 year old, Australian Tom Slingsby had established a comfortable lead from Croatian Luka Radelic and Anders Nyholm from Denmark who held their positions to the finish.

Scheidt continued: “On the reach I got a yellow flag penalty and had to make a 720 turn and Michael passed me. We sailed together downwind and then I passed him up on the second upwind and rounded seventh. On the downwind he came closer and was also catching me on the last reach. On the last short upwind I got a second yellow flag just before the finish and had to retire. This was very frustrating as well as disappointing and I only had a few minutes to recover my composure and concentrate on the second race.”

In the second race the tables had turned and Blackburn started chasing Scheidt in the pre-starts. Scheidt went on to say: “We had a bit of a match race but I managed to escape from him on all three attempted starts. In the final start I started to windward of him and I rolled him and he had to tack away. I then had a clear lane and went left and rounded the top mark about sixth and Michael was a long way behind. I had a lot of emotion and was excited because I had another chance.”

American Mark Mendelblatt led the race from start to finish with Scheidt pulling through to second. Blackburn had too much to do and could not influence the results and opted to use his second discard and take an early shower.

Mendelblatt’s first together with a fourth from the previous race was enough to give him the runner up spot one point ahead of Blackburn.

Britain's Paul Goodison, finished eighth overall following some good results including two second places, a third and two sixths.

Goodison commented, "I didn't make it easy for myself! Getting a black flag so early on meant that I had to sail far more conservatively than I would have liked and it was pretty hard to be punchy on the start line. On the whole however, I am pleased with my result here and the racing is quite different to that at the Games with a bigger fleet and longer races."

A second and a third for double Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil saw him win back his world championship title, giving him a total of seven world championship wins. Despite getting disqualified in the first race of the day, after getting two yellow flag penalties, his score line throughout the week was good enough to see him take the gold medal.
On the final day Mark Mendelblatt of America managed to overtake Michael Blackburn of Australia to take the silver medal leaving the 2000 Olympic bronze medallist with the bronze.
Goodison will now have a short break before going on to train in Athens next month.

Top 50 results:

Pos	Sailno	Name	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot
1	BRA 179787	SCHEIDT Robert	-6	5	1	1	1	1	2	3	(dnf)	2	16,0
2	USA 179914	MENDELBLATT Mark	4	-25	3	1	3	4	-8	4	4	1	24,0
3	AUS 179773	BLACKBURN Michael	3	-6	2	4	5	1	1	2	7	(dnf)	25,0
4	NZL 179883	PEPPER Hamish	1	8	-29	7	2	5	3	11	-14	12	49,0
5	SWE 179905	SUNESON Karl	6	-16	1	2	9	2	-17	16	8	5	49,0
6	AUT 179777	GERITZER Andreas	-13	3	7	3	9	2	16	1	9	-32	50,0
7	AUS 179776	SLINGSBY Tom	11	18	8	(dsq)	7	7	5	6	1	-30	63,0
8	GBR 179835	GOODISON Paul	(bfd)	14	2	2	12	3	6	-32	22	6	67,0
9	NOR 179878	MOBERG Peer	12	-26	14	6	4	6	4	20	(bfd)	8	74,0
10	CRO 179809	VUJASINOVIC Milan	18	3	11	7	-32	18	14	15	13	-41	99,0
11	DEN 179816	NYHOLM Anders	-32	31	6	10	2	7	30	-53	3	13	102,0
12	ITA 179860	NEGRI Diego	-46	8	(ocs)	11	12	16	23	25	16	4	115,0
13	NED 179877	POSTMA Pieter-Jan	-25	20	4	4	21	8	-33	8	31	25	121,0
14	FRA 179829	STEYAERT Jeremie	23	-42	10	14	3	22	-25	13	21	20	126,0
15	GBR 179840	STYLES Hugh	20	36	19	14	-38	8	(dnf)	10	6	16	129,0
16	SLO 179897	ZBOGAR Vasilij	5	-24	6	18	24	10	-57	7	15	44	129,0
17	FIN 179826	WESTMAN Fredrik	14	14	11	-30	5	12	-60	27	29	18	130,0
18	FRA 179827	LE BRETON Thomas	9	6	-18	15	7	14	-58	14	28	39	132,0
19	CRO 179807	RADELIC Luka	13	12	(ocs)	21	31	9	37	-69	2	9	134,0
20	AUS 179774	CASEY Brendan	15	-25	3	6	6	3	44	52	5	(bfd)	134,0
21	TUR 179908	MUSLUBAS Kemal	22	11	18	-26	16	11	28	19	12	-55	137,0
22	CRO 179805	KLJAKOVIC GASPIC Ivan	14	9	13	5	11	-20	(dnf)	37	33	15	137,0
23	RSA 179891	BLANCKENBERG Gareth	7	5	5	9	4	-15	36	29	(bfd)	48	143,0
24	GER 179843	RIECK Mathias	9	1	(dnf)	8	17	10	34	33	34	(bfd)	146,0
25	NED 179873	BON Sander	28	23	-30	12	8	-32	27	23	23	3	147,0
26	FRA 179828	MURATI Mathieu	-39	1	15	19	1	17	(dnf)	43	27	28	151,0
27	GRE 179846	CHIMONAS Evangelos	-27	10	14	11	17	9	-49	42	24	26	153,0
28	GBR 179837	HOWARD Mark James	4	13	(ocs)	22	15	13	31	-60	57	7	162,0
29	GBR 179831	BAILLIE STRONG Charles	34	-50	7	20	27	32	13	-65	18	11	162,0
30	NZL 179880	BLAKEY Matthew	29	9	17	13	-36	21	21	-47	43	10	163,0
31	NZL 179882	MURDOCH Andrew	24	-43	9	8	8	4	-55	40	44	27	164,0
32	POR 179888	LIMA Gustavo	2	-35	20	16	16	12	-45	26	42	31	165,0
33	GER 179844	SCHLONSKI Alexander	10	-42	5	10	10	14	-54	48	39	29	165,0
34	GBR 179836	HOLMAN Daniel	5	46	(ocs)	3	6	28	(bfd)	12	45	23	168,0
35	FIN 179825	SUOMALAINEN Roope	-54	22	(ocs)	19	20	17	24	18	35	14	169,0
36	BEL 179778	BERGMANS Philippe	27	40	(ocs)	28	14	15	7	9	32	(bfd)	172,0
37	SEY 179895	JULIE Allan	37	20	12	17	19	-40	12	38	17	(dnf)	172,0
38	CRO 179804	ARAPOV Mate	10	-38	4	5	13	11	22	61	(dnf)	46	172,0
39	GBR 179834	COMMANDER Andrew	17	13	25	27	-36	30	18	-55	10	37	177,0
40	NZL 179881	BULLOT Michael	2	16	22	-35	34	26	11	35	-56	33	179,0
41	CAN 179798	LUTTMER Bernard	30	-33	12	17	13	16	35	36	36	(bfd)	195,0
42	ESP 179820	MARTINEZ Luis	21	7	16	24	21	-25	40	46	-47	22	197,0
43	KOR 179866	KIM Ho Kon	-57	32	17	9	15	21	42	22	-53	43	201,0
44	BRA 179788	STREPPEL Andre	(dnf)	2	8	22	23	34	-59	5	52	56	202,0
45	POL 179886	GRABOWSKI Maciej	3	(dsq)	9	12	42	19	50	58	11	(dnf)	204,0
46	TUR 179909	TUFEKCI Ali Kemal	32	11	10	25	(dsq)	38	41	-44	40	19	216,0
47	GRE 179847	MANOLAKIS Antonis	16	-63	-54	48	18	24	9	51	30	21	217,0
48	DEN 179814	ULRIKKEHOLM Morten	29	-39	37	13	19	6	20	34	61	(bfd)	219,0
49	ESP 179821	SARMIENTO Mariano	8	(raf)	28	29	25	26	-65	30	38	36	220,0
50	ESP 179822	TABERNERO Angelo	18	17	16	21	22	-35	46	-64	46	35	221,0