Silver for Michael Bullot at Princess Sofia Trophy

by Richard Gladwell on 11 Apr 2009 New Zealand's Michael Bullot has won a Silver Medal in the Laser class at the Princess Sofia Mapfre Trophy, third event of the ISAF World Cup on the Bay of Palma, Spain.

Going into the medal race Bullot looked to be reasonably secure in third overall and is six points behind the second overall, Dabniel Mihelic (CRO) meaning he had to beat the Croatian by four places in the medal race to take the silver medal.

Although back in mid-fleet in the middle stages of the medal race, Bullot recovered well to finish third with Mihelic in tenth place. Previously fourth placed Stipanovic Tonci (CRO) was nine points astern of Bullot and had to finish five places ahead of Bullot in the medal race to change the overall standings in fact finished second giving him the Bronze medal and Tonci the Bronze and Mihelic finished in fourth place.

The Gold medal was won by Nick Thompson (GBR) who finished in 9th place. The result was a repeat of the 2008 Olympic medal race, where the eventual (and safe) Gold medalist sailed the second placegetter off the course and into fourth place in the final standings.

The result marks a major lift in performance for Bullot, a former ISAF World Youth singlehanded champion, who has always performed well in New Zealand, been able to get some good places internationally, but has often stumbled at a critical time dropping him down the points table. However towards the end of the 2008 Olympic cycle he was sailing more consistently in international competition and this result in the Princess Sofia Trophy is another step up again.

As the other New Zealand sailors did not make any medal racing the places remain as they were on the penultimate day

oung New Zealand sailor Josh Junior was unlucky to miss the cut for the medal race finishing in 11th overall - one place and two points shy of making the cut. Junior scored 24th and 11th placings yesterday which were sufficient to just drop him out of medal fleet contention.

Other New Zealand placings in the Laser class were:

Josh Junior 11th overall
Andy Maloney: 23rdth overall
James Sandall: 35th overall
Blair McLay: 73rd overall
Sam Meech: 74th overall
Matt Coutts: 100th overall

In the RS:X Womens fleet, Justina Sellerswas 19th overall

Sara Winther was 13th overall in the Laser Radial

Full results at www.trofeoprincesasofia-mapfre.org Follow the medal races live on the event website