Timing error sees Greeks win

At 470 Worlds in Cagliari, Sardinia

The same breeze but different direction greeted the 170 teams for the start of Day 2 competition at the 2002 International 470 World Championships on the Gulf of Cagliari , Sardinia today.

Temperatures getting up to 32 degrees, clear skys and a 15 knot northerly will certainly ensure more Yellow Flag Kinetics for the 31 Nations seeking one of the two World championship titles and one of the nine Mens' and six Womens' 2004 Olympic Qualification positions on offer here in Italy.

Overnight protest decisions were significant even given the early stages of the regatta.

The Greek reigning World Champions Sofia Bekatorou & Emilia Tsoulfa had a terrible finish to their first day , returning to the beach to realise that they had been called for being an early starter in race 2.. Unaware of the recall flag due to a small timing error on the Committee Vessel , the Greeks took their appeal to the International Jury.

As it happened the members of the International Jury had noticed the small error and granted Sofia & Emilia their finishing place, importantly a finishing place of 1st. This puts the Greeks back on an even footing as their first race score of 16 and their original OCS would have put their Worlds campaign back several steps. Also to gain from the witness of the Jury was German Womens champs Stephanie Rothweiler & Monika Leu who regained their lost 3rd place and now holds 6th place overall.

The changes move Natalia Via-Dufresne & Sandra Azon (ESP) up to 1st in front of Vlada Ilienko and Diana Krutskih (RUS) with the Australian Armstrong and Stowell still in 3rd.

In the fresh conditions of yesterdays race 2 several teams recorded ripped spinakers and the Belcher Brothers of Australia spent some the evening repairing a hole, suffered in a port and starboard clash with Steve Hunt & Mike Miller. Some of the saddest faces last night belonged to the Ex Junior World Champions Polish Tomasos Stanczyk and Jakubiak who despite a good seasons build up sit in 70th after the full 1st day of competition..