Slingsby & Multala continue to dominate Laser Euro

by Event media/Sail-World on 18 Jul 2008
Tom Slingsby of Australia and Sari Multala of Finland continue to dominate their events at the European Laser Championships in Belgium. Britain's Paul Goodison stayed in second place in the Laser, while Evi Van Acker is second in the Radial event. In the Men's Radial championship Jon Emmett recovered to the top of the leaderboard, with Zemke Wojciech of Poland in second.

Australian Tom Slingsby continues his dominance in the European Laser Standard Championship with his fourth first place finish in race 5. The start of race 5 was delayed slightly due to a large commercial ship entering the port forcing the sailors to wait ashore.

Once onto the race area a strong current and steady wind of 10 knots provided a challenging race. The first start resulted in a general recall but got away the second time with four black flags issued including Diego Romero (ITA).

The remaining two fleets left the start cleanly with wins for Matias Del Solar (CHI) and Tonci Stipanovic (CRO).

In race 6 the current was almost slack and turned during the race, leading to a challenging final leg for the last fleet as some sailors had difficulty reaching the finish line. With a 9 knot wind the first fleet started cleanly.

The red fleet started second and had to be recalled but then restarted cleanly the second time. Finally, the yellow fleet had a clean start but with two black flags issued. As the races progressed the wind dropped to 6 knots. Race 6 winners where Diego Romero, Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) and Joaquin Blanco Albalat (ESP).

Sarah Blanck moves up the leaderboard

Sari Multala (FIN) took second place in race 5 maintaining her overall lead whilst Katarzyna Szotynska (POL) scored a second place in race 5 followed by a win in race 6 moving her from 6th to third overall.

With wins in race 5 and race 6 Sarah Blanck (AUS) moved into fourth place overall. Challenging race conditions with a strong current and winds ranging from 6 to 10 knots meant the European Laser Radial Women's Championship saw several changes in the overall positions at the end of day 3.

Two wins help Jon Emmett recover his place at the top of the leaderboard

Day 3 saw Britain's Jon Emmett recover his overall lead with two first places from Wojciech Zemke of Poland, who also took a 1st place in race 5 and now sits only one point behind Emmett in second place overall. With only 1 black flag and 1 OCS for the two races the Men's Championship was managed well in the challenging conditions.


Laser - Leading positions after 6 races, 1 discard

1 AUS 192274 Slingsby Tom 1 1 1 -4 1 4 8,0
2 GBR 193501 Goodison Paul 1 3 5 2 -7 2 13,0
3 SLO 182671 Zbogar Vasilij 4 3 1 3 -9 3 14,0
4 GBR 193264 Thompson Nick 2 3 -7 2 4 3 14,0
5 CAN 188818 Leigh Michael 3 1 4 -7 6 2 16,0
6 GER 183431 Schadewaldt Tobias 7 1 3 1 7 -8 19,0
7 CHI 161167 Del Solar Matias 2 5 7 8 1 -21 23,0
8 CRO 188810 Radelic Luka -9 7 3 1 9 3 23,0
9 ITA 189107 Romero Diego 3 7 5 10 (bfd) 1 26,0
10 NED 192625 Van Schaardenburg Rutger 6 6 -16 5 4 5 26,0

Laser Radial, Women - Leading positions after 6 races, 1 discard

1 FIN 190609 Multala Sari 1 1 1 1 2 -16 6,0
2 BEL 188816 Van Acker Evi 3 1 5 1 3 -9 13,0
3 POL 192682 Szotynska Katarzyna 2 4 -14 4 2 1 13,0
4 AUS 192293 Blanck Sarah 4 -15 2 7 1 1 15,0
5 FRA 185350 Steyaert Sarah 3 3 3 -6 6 2 17,0
6 FRA 191336 de Turckheim Sophie 1 2 3 2 -26 10 18,0
7 ESP 192692 Reyes Lucia 4 7 6 4 5 -44 26,0
8 USA 189011 Railey Paige 7 2 2 (bfd) 1 19 31,0
9 ITA 188561 Nevierov Larissa -14 12 4 5 4 7 32,0
10 GBR 191316 Clark Penny 10 5 1 (bfd) 11 9 36,0
11 NED 189656 Bouwmeester Marit -20 5 20 2 4 7 38,0
12 GBR 188411 Brewster Andrea 5 -18 5 18 7 3 38,0
13 GBR 192519 Dobson Charlotte 6 8 10 3 -24 11 38,0

Laser Radial, Men - Leading positions after 6 races, 1 discard

1 GBR 188824 Emmett Jon 2 1 -4 2 1 1 7,0
2 POL 180738 Zemke Wojciech 1 2 1 3 1 -13 8,0
3 GRE 181569 Michail Aristeidis 2 1 -10 2 5 3 13,0
4 FRA 190888 Frei Mathieu 1 (bfd) 5 1 2 5 14,0
5 CRO 187073 Matika Filip 3 -9 1 6 3 2 15,0
6 NED 192302 Koppelaar Ben -5 4 2 4 5 1 16,0
7 NED 185076 Hummel Yuri 4 9 2 (bfd) 2 4 21,0
8 NED 192629 Van Mackelenbergh Rodie 6 (bfd) 3 4 3 9 25,0
9 CRO 186212 Sestan Marko 3 6 9 7 6 -17 31,0
10 ITA 181441 Baruzzi Marco 8 10 7 5 4 -11 34,0
11 ESP 170972 Guitian Javier 5 3 -17 9 11 10 38,0
12 GBR 187491 Spencer James 17 4 6 6 10 -24 43,0
13 GBR 189362 Evans Martin 4 2 9 1 28 -31 44,0