Two in a row for Kusznierewicz Zycki

The Star World Championships are being convincingly led by the Polish team

The top ranked Star Class sailing team of Mateusz Kusznierewicz and crew Dominik Zycki made it two bullets in a row today, the second race of the 2008 Star Class World Championships at Coral Reef Yacht Club.

“We are smiling today,” said Kusznierewicz. “Sometimes people have just a good couple of days.” He and Zycki crossed the finish line one minute, 20 seconds ahead of second place finishers Marin Lovrovic Jr., and crew Sinsa Mikulici who move up from 29th place to ninth overall.

Kusznierewicz and Zycki were second around the first mark, passed the Croatian team before the leeward gate, and continued to increase their spread on the next two beats. “Dominik and I were talking about everything but sailing on that last beat,” said Kusznierewicz.

The Italians, Diego Negri and crew Luigi Viale, ranked second in the world, took another third place finish moving them up to second place overall. “We decided to be more conservative at the start line then we went left looking for the first big shift and found it,” said Negri. “Being in front in the top ten on the course gave us an opportunity to improve our position at each mark,” he explained.

Mark Mendelblatt and crew Mark Strube move to third place overall with a sixth place finish today behind the Irish team of Peter O’Leary and Stephen Milne, who are now in seventh overall.

O’Leary and Milne, sailing in only their third Star Class event, are giving the Irish a strong chance of earning one of the four Olympic berths still open. “We still have four races to go, but we’ll certainly take today’s finish,” said O’Leary.

The wind on Biscayne Bay picked up with 14 knots and choppy water. Squalls in the west and uneven wind caused several gang ups of competitors at several points on the line resulting in two race postponements with a subsequent line adjustment.

More than 80 percent of the 104-boat fleet started to the left, a solid choice as this group included the top three finishers in yesterday’s race - Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL), Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube (USA) and Diego Negri and Luigi Viale (ITA).

Almost half of the initial two dozen boats rounding the first upwind mark were notified that they were black-flagged at the start line. In total, 25 boats were black-flagged including several Star World champions and Olympians.

Results, here .