Slingsby and Blackburn discard second places

Laser Radial Worlds tight at the top

Day three of the Laser Radial World Open and Women's Championship challenged both the race committee and competitors as rain showers passed left and right of the course area exaggerating the already oscillating breeze. The sun stayed shining on the competitors and a 15 knot breeze provided great racing in spite of each fleet needing several attempts at a start as the race committee struggled to set a square start line.

Once again the most exciting racing was in the women's fleet with series leader Krystal Weir AUS making hard work of holding on to her overall lead and Gea Jutjens from the Netherlands another new race winner. She said "my coach say's I'm sailing like Lazarus - always coming back from the dead!" In both races today she was deep in the rounding order at the first mark and had to work her back to the front through good downwind speed. In the first race of the day she recovered from 8th to finish first ahead of Jane Mackay from New Zealand and Corrine Meyer from Switzerland. In the second race Gea Jutjens picked up a right hand shift soon after the start. She held that advantage to lead round the first mark ahead of Mackay and the two of them extended their lead throughout the race. Behind them Weir rounded in 14th and had to make an even bigger recovery than in previous race to finish 3rd.

At the front end of the male fleet Australians Michael Blackburn and Tom Slingsby continued their dominance in the power sailing conditions each scoring two easy first places in their respective fleets. Behind them results are more mixed. Matt Blakey NZL had to retire from the first race after receiving his second yellow flag penalty whilst his compatriot, Jason Geale, scored a second to give hime his first podium finish of the series. Blakey came back with vengance in his second race to score a second to keep him third overall after discard. In the other fleet Nick Skullander AUS had his best day so far scoring two seconds.

Overall leaders, Blackburn and Slingsby, are matching each other race for race in their respective fleets and at the halfway stage still share joint first. In strong winds these two have mastered the short wave pattern in the shallow waters of Moreton Bay better than anyone else. Defending champion, Aron Lolic, from Croatia has been very consistent never finishing worse than fourth but needs to start getting some bullets in the remaining 6 races if he is to keep his title. The real drama will come in days 5 and 6 when the fleet is split into gold and silver and the top sailors go 'head to head'. Throw in a possible change to lighter winds and the picture at the front could change significantly.

Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday.

Open results (two fleets, combined top 20):

			R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total
1	AUS 178785	SLINGSBY Tom	-2	1	1	1	1	1	5
2	AUS 178640	BLACKBURN Michael	1	-2	1	1	1	1	5
3	NZL 175277	BLAKEY Matthew	1	2	2	6	(dnf)	2	13
4	AUS 177793	IRONMONGER Ricky	(ocs)	1	2	3	4	4	14
5	CRO 167831	LOLIC Aron	3	3	-4	2	3	3	14
6	AUS 177729	SKULANDER Nick	4	8	3	-10	2	2	19
7	NZL 136721	ORAMS Mark	7	3	4	-8	5	3	22
8	NZL 178663	MCLAY Blair	5	-7	5	2	7	4	23
9	AUS 178788	CHEW Matthew	-8	5	5	5	6	5	26
10	NZL 161262	GEALE Jason	6	4	9	-21	2	7	28
11	AUS 161244	MORGAN Simon	4	-8	7	8	3	6	28
12	NZL 177074	BARTROM Jake	3	5	9	-15	4	9	30
13	GBR 174628	EMMETT Jon	5	(ocs)	8	3	6	8	30
14	NZL 175279	WINTER Martin	2	6	-13	6	7	10	31
15	AUS 178646	SCHMIDT Andrew	9	4	3	9	-22	6	31
16	CRO 177575	MIHELIC Daniel	8	7	-10	5	9	5	34
17	AUS 165827	AUSTIN Ben	10	6	6	7	-11	7	36
18	NZL 167137	PRENTICE Craig	10	10	7	4	9	-11	40
19	BRA 157790	JAKOBSSON Daniel	9	13	-14	4	11	8	45
20	AUS 176898	WILSON Peter	6	11	6	7	-16	15	45

Womens fleet:

			R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total
1	AUS 180195	WEIR Krystal	1	1	1	-3	1	3	7
2	AUS 153136	BRIDGE Christine	-8	4	2	1	5	4	16
3	ARG 179356	CARRANZA SAROLI Cecilia	2	5	5	7	7	-11	26.5
4	NZL 178665	MACKY Jane	(ocs)	14	7	2	2	2	27
5	SUI 179395	MEYER Corinne	4	3	8	9	3	-14	27
6	NZL 159153	POWRIE Miranda	6	2	3	5	(dsq)	13	29
7	ISR 168365	EDELMAN Nufar	3	8	10	-14	4	5	30
8	NZL 176918	WINTHER Sara	9	9	4	4	(dnf)	6	32
9	NED 166368	JUTJENS Gea	5	15	(dsq)	6	10	1	37
10	IRL 173815	HANNA Debbie	7	6	12	8	13	-16	46
11	AUS 178789	SLINGSBY Alana	10	-11	11	11	7	7	46.5
12	NZL 177775	ALEH Jo	-12	10	6	10	9	12	47
13	BRA 163161	BÉJAR Caroline	11	13	-17	13	6	8	51
14	NZL 150092	BASSETT Michelle	-13	12	13	12	12	10	59
15	AUS 178787	PATTERSON Lyndall	14	7	9	-15	15	15	60
16	NZL 158892	PRENTICE Robyn	16	19	16	(ocs)	11	9	71
17	AUS 173455	BOYD Samantha	-21	17	19	17	14	16	83.5
18	AUS 180194	ENGLAND Samantha	18	-20	14	16	18	18	84
19	AUS 174355	BUCKLEY Cassie	19	16	15	-21	16	20	86
20	MON 174067	PALMER Alexia	15	18	20	18	21	(23	92