RS-X World Championships - Bouman, Alabau tops

by Jodie PERKINS/David BELL (As Amended By ISAF) on 26 Sep 2006
Casper BOUMAN (NED) maintained his perfect start at the ISAF Grade W RS:X World Championships in Torbole, Italy, posting another two bullets yesterday in his favoured heavy air conditions. Tom ASHLEY (NZL) also had another two races wins and ties the Dutchman for the lead, whilst Marina ALABAU (ESP) tops the women’s fleet.

Three days into the inaugural RS:X World Championships the qualifying series is at an end, and after the lay day, the top 40 women and 41 men go through to compete for the medals in the gold fleet.

Overcast skies with the potential for rain ushered a different weather pattern for the third day of racing on Lake Garda. The storm that battered northern Britain earlier in the week has been smashing its way across Europe causing wide spread electrical blackouts in Marseille. The fleets had a bit of a wait whilst the Peller (north) wind decided to co-operate and it looked like being a very light day. The wind did not switch as it had on days one and two and it fluctuated from planing in the early races to sub planing in the later races. Those who dug deep progressed, others were not so lucky.

The race courses looked very different with the overcast conditions and definite avenues of wind filtered down the course. Trentino course further offshore was the windier by at least five knots compared to Torbole. The competitors that continued to plane at all times, seemed to be so far ahead of their fleets the watching spectators and media often had to check the colour of the streamers to determine the division.

In the men’s fleet it was a case of more of the same, with BOUMAN and ASHLEY still up in first place, both on five points. BOUMAN has a drop of 1, whereas ASHLEY has a drop of a 2. Impeccable racing from this pair has really thrown the championship bookies into a spin. Both are sailing to such a high level that they are on the beach changed and warming down before some people have even finished. Joeri VAN DIJK (NED) had a sixth place yesterday which dropped him one point down from the equal first spot. The next three positions are held by European Champion Nick DEMPSEY (GBR), Przemek MIARCZYNSKI (POL), and Ricardo SANTOS (BRA), with no more than five points separating each of them.

'Today was great - had another two bullets,' said ASHLEY. 'The conditions were different to the first two days with a light offshore wind instead of the thermal onshore wind we had been racing in before. My speed is great and I made a few good tactical calls to keep me at the front of the fleet.'

Adding the two wins to his total overnight, ASHLEY is now on equal points with BOUMAN, who holds first place in the men’s division. After today’s lay day three days of competition will decide the top ten who go through to the Medal Race on Saturday.

'I'm really looking forward to racing in the gold fleet with all the other top sailors,' said ASHLEY.

Amongst the women, ALABAU posted 2,4 scores to move one point ahead of four-time ISAF Youth World Champion Zofia KLEPACKA (POL). Three-time Olympic medallist Alessandra SENSINI (ITA) continued her impressive debut in the RS:X class, with 1,2 scores putting her just two points off the top spot. Reigning Olympic Champion Faustine MERRET (FRA) went one better with two bullets moving her up into fourth place overall.

In race one SENSINI passed the second mark with a lead of around 30 seconds and caught a couple of well calculated gusts, helping her stretch her lead. By the time she was back at the top again she had advanced her lead by over two minutes, and was not looking back. She went on to lap all almost the entire fleet. MERRET also starred, using her strength in the last race to pull ahead of early leader and team mate Pauline PERRIN (FRA).

The Race Committee has been really diligent on their start infringements. There has been no general recalls as yet, but quite a few independent. In a fleet as big as the one on Lake Garda, any slip up like this can be close to sudden disqualification. On Torbole course, a bunch up in the women’s start had a younger sailor accidentally pushing Bryony SHAW (GBR) over early, causing her to score an OCS. Lee KORZITS (ISR), Charline PICON (FRA), and Antonia FREY (GRE) also had OCS scores yesterday.

After their impressive performance at the recent Olympic Test Event in Qingdao, not one of the Chinese men’s team made the gold fleet. Yuanguo ZHOU (CHN) was the best placed of the Chinese men in 46th place, fourth points off the all important 41st spot. The Chinese women faired better, with Ling LI (CHN) in 21st the best placed of five Chinese windsurfers making the gold fleet.

Men - Leading positions:
1 NED 52 Bouman, Casper 5,0 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 NZL 181 Ashley, Tom 5,0 1 1 1 2 1 1
3 NED 1 Van Dijk, Joeri 6,0 1 1 1 2 1 5
4 GBR 21 Dempsey, Nick 10,0 2 4 2 1 4 1
5 POL 126 Miarczynski, Przemek 12,0 4 6 2 2 2 2
6 BRA 1 Santos, Ricardo 15,0 4 2 3 3 4 3
7 GER 319 Wilhelm, Toni 16,0 3 3 7 3 5 2
8 UKR 19 Oberemko, Maxime 16,0 2 4 3 5 4 3
9 FRA 8 Huguet, Nicolas 17,0 2 2 2 3 14 8
10 POR 75 Rodrigues, Joao 18,0 2 8 ocs 4 2 2
11 FRA 112 Launay, Samuel 19,0 5 5 6 5 1 3
12 SUI 31 Stauffacher, Richard 21,0 3 2 6 1 9 13
13 GRE 1 Kaklamanakis, Nikolaos 21,0 6 2 1 10 7 5
14 FRA 13 Guyader, Nicolas 21,0 7 8 3 6 4 1
15 POL 82 Myszka, Piotr 22,0 5 6 2 4 5 8

Women - Leading positions:
1 ESP 5 Alabau Neira, Marina 10,0 3 2 1 2 2 4
2 POL 8 Klepacka, Zofia 11,0 1 1 2 4 3 6
3 ITA 25 Sensini, Alessandra 12,0 4 3 5 2 1 2
4 FRA 9 Merret, Faustine 15,0 dns 3 6 4 1 1
5 GBR 95 Horwood, Lucy 25,0 7 1 4 10 4 9
6 FRA 4 Picon, Charline 26,0 3 2 13 7 ocs 1
7 GRE 1 Frai, Antonia 27,0 1 9 3 6 ocs 8
8 GBR 93 Johnston, Christine 27,0 10 6 4 8 2 7
9 GER 6 Kinzl, Romy 29,0 5 5 3 6 10 20
10 ESP 1 Manchon Dominguez, Blanca 30,0 9 dnf 2 1 7 11
11 NZL 15 Kendall, Barbara 32,0 11 5 1 3 14 12
12 AUS 15 Crisp, Jessica 32,0 17 11 5 5 6 5
13 POL 4 Hlavaty, Marta 40,0 2 9 12 1 16 23
14 UKR 9 Maslivets, Olga 42,0 4 11 6 16 8 13
15 NOR 3 Staalstrom, Jannicke 42,0 6 4 12 9 11 32