Another small step forwards for Sari Multala

As gold fleet racing gets underway at the Laser Radial World Championship in Largs

Monday July 12th 2010, Author: Lindsey Bell, Location: United Kingdom

Finland’s defending champion stepped further clear of the chasing pack today when she sailed to a well earned fifth place from another difficult race at the Laser Radial World Championships on the Clyde off Largs. Both Women’s and Men’s current title holders lead their championships.

As the women’s fleet entered the Finals phase today there was little in the way of extra cooperation from the fickle and shifty breezes which finally thwarted all attempts to complete the scheduled two races when the easterly expired to nothing.

Multala’s fifth gives her a seven points advantage over the young Dutch sailor Marit Bouwmeester who sailed to an eighth today.

When the fleets set off in the morning in a promising NW’ly breeze which was not showing on most of the forecasts, then perhaps that was a foresight of what was likely to happen. Early sunshine was the bonus, but after an initial rain shower the Men got away best in the westerly breeze which perhaps mustered all of six knots. The women took longer to get their start away as the breeze swung around.

But the dark clouds over Largs town soon took effect, shifting the breeze around in direction, developing holes and areas of light pressure.

On the first downwind for the Women’s gold fleet, the breeze died nearly completely and on the second upwind the extra pressure had started to push in, finally true to the forecast from east, but when it did come in, the course ended slightly skewed.
Indeed on the final beat the wind had finally clocked through the best part of 100 degrees since the start direction.

With three races now planned for Tuesday, the penultimate day, Multala’s sights are set firmly on just repeating the same kind of consistent assured strategies that have served her well so far.

“I think I have become more steady as a sailor, better able to sail in whatever comes along, and I can perform well no matter what the conditions are,” remarked the 32 year old Finnish sailor, who won the World title at a breezy regatta in Japan last year.

As to today's racing Multala said: “It was variable, a bit challenging really. The first upwind was okay, it was still quite steady but then the wind started to die first, then shift to the right slowly. And then in the end it had gone around about 180 degrees. But it was always quite obvious something was happening to the right because there was some really dark clouds but it juts took a while until the wind reached us, we were close to the second top mark by then and so the top sailors were pretty much OK by that stage. I was in the top ten and then I came up a few places on the second upwind because I saw the line of breeze coming across on the right and got there before some other girls.

“Overall for me it is still about getting steady, good result for me in the top flight. Today was a bit strange for sure, but many places get a bit strange on some days. But certainly it is a bit different to how it was when we were training here. Then it was a lot steadier. For me if they do more than two races tomorrow it is really just about focussing on staying solid.

"I think I have become more steady, more regular and can perform well no matter what the conditions are. I hope that comes with the training, and maybe some of it is age and experience.”

China’s Dongshuang Zhang read the big advantage to the left on the first beat, where there was more wind pressure, and won the women’s race with a lead of about 200 metres over Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), the Olympic gold medallist and Paige Railey (USA) in third. Railey holds third overall with France’s Sarah Steyaert in fourth.

Steyaert gave her impressions of the day: "It was shifty. The wind was NW and then it turned to the east but because I was good on the first upwind and downwind then I was OK. I just really had to be aware. Once you were in the top group there you could be OK. I have a disqualification from the jury which I am looking to get reopened but that is not good for me. I had a protest against me which I did not know. So I did not go to the hearing and so hopefully it can be reopened tonight."

Gold Flight Overall After race 6 Inc. 1 discard - top 50

Pos	Helm	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot	Net
1	Multala Sari	FIN	4	3	1	-49	2	5	64	15
2	Bouwmeester Marit	NED	2	1	5	-7	6	8	29	22
3	Railey Paige	USA	3	1	4	16	-17	3	44	27
4	Steyaert Sarah	FRA	23	4	1	3	(DSQ [58.0])	4	93	35
5	Drozdovskaya Tatiana	BLR	1	5	14	3	-32	13	68	36
6	Mihelic Tina	CRO	15	8	3	8	-35	6	75	40
7	Tunnicliffe Anna	USA	1	2	37	-49	5	2	96	47
8	Van Acker Evi	BEL	6	11	-21	14	1	15	68	47
9	Scheidt Gintare	LTU	13	19	2	4	-40	11	89	49
10	de Kerangat Mathilde	FRA	18	7	15	5	-19	10	74	55
11	Tenkanen Tuula	FIN	11	10	-21	1	21	12	76	55
12	Young Alison	GBR	6	9	6	17	-27	20	85	58
13	Elias Calles Wolf Tania	MEX	4	-10	7	5	5	42	73	63
14	Fenclova Veronika	CZE	17	5	3	-22	3	36	86	64
15	Clapcich Francesca	ITA	14	24	7	2	-42	18	107	65
16	Brugger Nathalie	SUI	-39	7	10	19	8	22	105	66
17	Romero Steensma Susana	ESP	7	-26	6	13	15	25	92	66
18	Ross Lisa	CAN	5	-32	27	2	9	28	103	71
19	Goltz Franziska	GER	18	14	-35	9	10	23	109	74
20	Murphy Annalise	IRL	8	12	18	-35	7	30	110	75
21	Olsson Josefin	SWE	5	8	32	17	-39	14	115	76
22	Lihan Sarah	USA	8	3	10	10	-24	46	101	77
23	Brewster Andrea	GBR	10	21	26	12	-40	9	118	78
24	Reyes Fatima	ESP	12	19	-30	26	2	21	110	80
25	Cebrian Alicia	ESP	9	15	11	15	-26	32	108	82
26	Baldwin Laura	AUS	9	14	25	-51	4	31	134	83
27	Zhang Dongshuang	CHN	28	-37	24	6	25	1	121	84
28	Rindom Anne-Marie	DEN	21	9	15	24	-31	17	117	86
29	Winther Sara	NZL	23	6	14	-27	16	29	115	88
30	Reyes Lucia	ESP	13	11	17	-42	4	44	131	89
31	Schutt Maiken	DEN	-30	25	25	19	14	7	120	90
32	Lindberg Alberte	DEN	7	4	9	34	-49	37	140	91
33	Dennis Claire	USA	15	20	26	7	-48	24	140	92
34	Mileviciute Ausra	LTU	17	27	19	11	-49	19	142	93
35	Brien Tiffany	IRL	25	15	19	9	-54	26	148	94
36	Dobson Charlotte	GBR	22	6	2	-32	19	53	134	102
37	Helbig Anke	GER	-33	25	12	10	13	43	136	103
38	Powrie Miranda	NZL	11	16	23	-52	14	40	156	104
39	Yin Elizabeth	SIN	10	18	20	-23	1	56	128	105
40	Marie Menaldo	FRA	16	29	20	8	-36	34	143	107
41	Weinzieher Anna	POL	24	31	16	21	-34	16	142	108
42	Blom Claire	NED	12	2	13	29	-38	52	146	108
43	Basevi Rachel	NZL	20	22	-51	6	22	39	160	109
44	Makowska Ewa	POL	-36	33	8	1	20	47	145	109
45	Gunni Sarah	DEN	31	21	9	22	-33	27	143	110
46	Edelman Nufar	ISR	22	13	17	-46	10	50	158	112
47	Bertold Isabella	CAN	29	28	4	-36	22	33	152	116
48	Steiner Paula	GER	25	16	-28	16	23	38	146	118
49	Hall Cathrine	DEN	34	17	-45	15	7	48	166	121
50	Kaynar Pinar	TUR	-51	39	12	12	26	35	175	124