Blair McLay hangs in there

Qualifying is nearly over at the Laser Radial Youth World Championship in Brazil

On the third day of the Laser Radial Youth Worlds, New Zealander, Blair McLay, guaranteed his absolute leadership of the competition. He is undefeated after winning all six races in the last three days. Between the Brazilians, Daniel Jakobsson is on top in sixth place. His compatriot André Ribeiro is in 18th. Between women, who are competing together with men at the same regatta, the leadership is kept by Cushla Hume-Merry, from New Zealand. She´s got the 38th position at the general fleet.

After getting the first place two days in a row with the portuguese Frederico Melo, Blair McLay could celebrate his absolute leadership, since Frederico finished in third position at the second race. “I am happy. My strategy is to go on sailing the same way until the end”, says Blair. Frederico was uset to have lost the first position. “I made some wrong movements that made me drop a few places in the overal results. The conditions on the start line were more difficult today. The people that were at the ends had better performances”, he explained.

New Zealander Cushla Hume-Merry had problems at the first race with a part of her boat, but even so she´s still the best between female athletes. “Tomorrow I got to really sail hard, because today british Sara Williams almost overtook me”. The best brazilian sailor is still Fernanda Decnop, who finished the day in 66th place.

Today, after six races, the worst performance of each athlete was discarded. Tomorrow after two more races (total of eight), the qualifying phase will be ended. So the final phase begins Friday, when the 103 sailors will be divided into two fleets: gold – for the ones that reach until the 51st place – and silver, for the rest of them. The competition goes on until Saturday between 103 athletes from 26 countries.

Results:

Pos	Sail Number	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	NZL 178663	Blair McLay, Male	-1	1	1	1	1	1	5,0
2	POR 175722	Frederico Melo, Male	1	1	1	1	-5	3	7,0
3	CRO 181944	Ivan Taritas, Male	-6	3	2	2	3	4	14,0
4	GRE 167693	Antonios Tzortzis, Male	3	3	2	-16	2	6	16,0
5	ESP 179625	Jorge Jover Garcia, Male	5	5	5	-7	1	2	18,0
6	BRA 174394	Daniel Jakobsson, Male	2	2	(dsq)	3	8	3	18,0
7	AUS 184263	James Burman, Male	-10	4	3	3	6	5	21,0
8	FIN 181661	Pierre Angelo Collura, Male	5	4	-8	6	5	2	22,0
9	RUS 182019	Igor Lisovenko, Male	8	2	-9	2	7	7	26,0
10	USA 180496	Kyle Rogachenko, Male	-13	12	6	4	4	1	27,0
11	USA 179144	Blake Warner, Male	3	8	3	5	10	-14	29,0
12	NZL 181880	Max Andrews, Male	4	9	5	5	7	-11	30,0
13	ARG 181758	Buiatti Fagalde Federico, Male	2	7	-8	7	8	8	32,0
14	USA 177002	Fred Strammer, Male	4	5	4	6	13	-17	32,0
15	IRL 173086	Ryan Seaton, Male	-11	6	7	4	6	9	32,0
16	ITA 181442	Luca Nassini, Male	-18	10	4	10	4	8	36,0
17	GBR 183235	Adam Fox, Male	7	9	-21	11	2	12	41,0
18	BRA 158503	André Frota Ribeiro, Male	-13	7	6	8	9	13	43,0
19	GBR 181671	John Beatty, Male	7	11	7	15	-34	4	44,0
20	FRA 183060	Arthur Keller, Male	6	8	9	9	19	-32	51,0
21	ITA 181946	Claudio Arborea, Male	14	13	-23	14	11	6	58,0
22	FRA 182165	Maxime Cariou, Male	10	6	13	-17	14	16	59,0
23	CRO 180045	Ivo Kalebic, Male	26	-35	10	10	9	5	60,0
24	IRL 173080	Alexander Mark Dolan, Male	8	10	18	8	16	-27	60,0
25	FIN 174668	Mattias Lindfors, Male	12	14	11	11	-26	15	63,0
26	POR 172332	João Vidinha, Male	12	-23	14	20	10	9	65,0
27	ESP 178053	Bernat Galé Bou, Male	14	16	-29	9	14	18	71,0
28	ESP 178029	Rafael Aguirre Caballero, Male	19	15	17	18	3	-32	72,0
29	FRA 180226	Malo Leseigneur, Male	16	-22	12	19	18	7	72,0
30	EST 180330	Karl Martin Rammo, Male	16	13	-21	16	15	15	75,0