Scheidt soars into the lead

14 point lead for Brazilian legend after day two of the Star Sailors League Finals in Nassau

Three races, light conditions but very close competition marked the second day of the Star Sailors League Finals in Nassau.

Robert Scheidt was in commanding form, and has taken the overall lead in the qualifying races, on 11 points after seven races completed. Italy's Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi kept their second place (25 points) as well as Americans Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (26 points) preserve himself from the attack of Norway's Eivind Melleby (32), that climbed to fourth from fifth yesterday's, France's Xavier Rohart (35), followed by Pole Mateusz Kusznierewicz (40) and German Robert Stanjek (42).

In the opening race, Negri won the pin end and sailed upwind on the left side of the course, to lead into the top mark, when Scheidt, who started mid-line, didn't get a great start to his day. But the Brazilian Olympic legend erased the gap just before the first bottom mark. In the third leg Scheidt chose not to cover the fleet, but his speed and correct route were enough to put out a 30m advantage. In the meantime it was exciting to watch the newcomers Postma and Maloney ahead of numerous Star medalists. Utlimately the bullet was taken by Scheidt after a super close end where the blond Brazilian successfully fended off Negri, Mendelblatt and Cayard all the way to the line.

At the beginning of race 6 individual recalls were unfortunately misunderstood from Wright and Szabo when the guilty party was in fact the Netherland's Pieter Jan Postma, who continued only to be disqualified. In the leg 1 Rohart took the lead and went into a very crowded top mark rounding just ahead of three simultaneously: Melleby, Hornos, Stanjek. As Rohart held on to first and Melleby second, Scheidt climbed four places by the third mark just behind Rohart but ahead of Melleby, Lobert, Polgar, Hornos, Mendelblatt, Maloney, Hestbaek and Stanjek.

On the first beat of race 7, a big group went right and after many tacks Mateusz Kusznierewicz led at the top mark. Later the Polish crew couldn't defend its position as Scheidt swept into the lead. However on the third leg Johannes Polgar overtook the defending Star World Champion and crossed the line first, a big resurgence after a difficult first day for the German crew.

Seven of nine qualifying races now are complete and those at the top of the leaderboard have already mathematically qualified for Saturday's Finals.

Diego Negri commented: "The races so far have been really though and the fleet is always very short. Any mistake could be lethal and can put anybody at the back of the fleet. On the other hand distances between boats are so small that it is possible to jump some boats ahead especially crossing the finish line. We had a very good start yesterday with two bullets and two other good races thinking that the goal was to be in the top ten to sail the finals on the last day. Also today we began on the top group leading at the top mark and finishing second in the first race of the day. The second one was a little bit more difficult for us and we passed suddenly from 5 to 15 finishing 13. Better in the last where after sailing the whole race in the top group, we have been the last of three boats on a photo finish arrival finishing in sixth. We are anyway really happy so far of our performance and mathematically sure to be qualified for the finals."

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