Qualifying venue looks good

Cascais International Sailing Week was dominated by Olympians getting vital practice at the venue

The last day of racing at the Cascais International Sailing Week followed the same pattern as the previous days with the North winds blowing hard, gusting up to 30 knots at times. The Medal Race, which is open to the first ten sailors of each class, was contested with much emotion and there were some unexpected changes made to the overall results.

The 49ers were dominated by current Olympic silver medalists, Rodion Luka and George Leonchuck (UKR) who fended off a determined challenge from Gordon Cook and Benjamin Remocker (CAN) in second. Jorge Lima and Francisco Andrade (POR), sailors of the Clube Naval de Cascais rounded out the top three.

In women's 470 the British pairing of Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark won by a significant margin beating home Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (DEN) and the Brazilians Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan in third.

In the men's 470 it was Álvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes (POR), who collected first place. Behind them Mathias Schmid and Flavian Reichstadter (AUT), and Bruno Van Antwerpen and Pim Peters (BEL) fought hard for second place, with the former beating he latter.

In the Star class, Hammish Pepper and his crew Carl Williams – a grinder for BMW/ORACLE in the America’s Cup – from New Zealand took first place. The pair were closely followed by Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski from Germany in second and Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Zycki Dominik from Poland in third.

In the women's Neil Pryde RS:X Blanca Manchon (ESP) took first place despite a poor performance on the last day. She was followed by Lee Korsitz (ISR) in second and Alessandra Sensini (ITA) in third.

Finally, in the men's RS:X, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist Nikos Kaklamanakis (GRE) held first place from the first day of racing, proving after a year away from racing following the Athens Olympics he is still very much on form. He was followed by the reigning Olympic Champion - and his good friend - Gal Fridman (ISR), with Ivan Pastor (ESP) rounding off the podium in third.

The event which is ISAF Grade 3 attracted a number of top sailors partially because it is the venue of the 2007 ISAF World Sailing Championships, an Olympic qualifying regatta. Certainly the weather held up and the event was well run which bodes well for next year.