2010 Star World Championship - British sailors take the lead

by ZDL - João Pedro Nunes on 19 Jan 2010
French team Xavier Rohart and Pierre Alexis Ponsot won the Transpreto Regatta on the third day of the Star World Championship, this Monday, at a course outside of Guanabara Bay. They were in the lead from the start and dominated the entire race (10.5 nautical miles/19.4 km).

British sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, the reigning Olympic champions, are the new leaders in the competition. Brazilians Alan Adler and Guilherme de Almeida finished in 11th place and held on to their second position in the overall ranking.

Alan Adler and Guilherme de Almeida were very pleased with the result. 'We tried to have the best possible race and 11th place is a good result in a fleet as strong as this one,' said Alan, 1989 World Champion in Italy. 'Now we have to focus on Tuesday’s race and maintain our consistent results.'

British sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, who finished the third race in second place, celebrated their leadership in the competition. 'We made some changes in our sailing compared to Sunday and this new technique is paying off,' said Percy, Olympic champion in China.

French team Xavier Rohart and Pierre Ponsot, winners of the Transpreto Regatta, were very relieved with their result. 'Everything went well for us, we were going very fast and seemed to have a green light the whole way,' joked Rohart, 2003 and 2005 World Champion. The team finished 66th in the first race and 14th in the second race. 'The first race was a real disaster for us and we took note of our problems,' explained the helmsman, ranked 26th in the general standing.

'Now we have to hope that Iain and Swiss sailors Flávio Marazzi and Enrico de Maria will make mistakes but that is very unlikely.'

German team Johannes Babendererde and Timo Jacobs, who dominated the first two days of the world Championship, finished in 39th place in Monday's race and are now in 11th position overall.

Results - Race 3
1- Xavier Rohart / Pierre Ponsot (FRA) - 1
2- Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson (GBR) - 2
3- Renato Cunha / Marcos Mascarenhas (BRA) - 3
4- Eivind Melleby / Petter Pedersen (NOR) - 4
5- Diego Negri / Fernando Colaninno (ITA) - 5
6- Flavio Marazzi / Enrico De Maria (SWI) - 6
7- Alejo Rigoni / Juan Pablo Percossi (ARG) - 7
8- Juan Kouyoumdjian / Alejandro Colla (ARG) - 8
9- Gustavo Lima / Charles Nankin (POR) - 9
10- George Szabo / Rick Peters (USA) - 10

Results - after three races
1- Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson (GBR) - 15 (2+11+2)
2- Alan Adler / Guilherme de Almeida (BRA) - 22 (6+5+11)
3- Eivind Melleby / Petter Pedersen (NOR) - 23 (9+10+4)
4- Fredrik Loof / John Tillander (SWE) - 35 (8+9+18)
5- Ross MacDonald (EUA) / André Lekszycki (BRA) - 37 (10+13+14)
6- Flavio Marazzi / Enrico De Maria (SWI) - 37 (30+1+6)
7- Andrew Campbell / Brad Nichol (USA) - 39 (12+3+24)
8- Juan Kouyoumdjian / Alejandro Colla (ARG) - 42 (4+30+8)
9- Gastão Brun / Gustavo Kunze (BRA) - 43 (21+7+15)
10- Diego Negri / Fernando Colaninno (ITA) - 46 (23+18+5)
12- Torben Grael / Marcelo Ferreira (BRA) - 51 (5+25+21)
14- André Mirsky / Marcelo Jordão (BRA) - 55 (33+6+22)
15- Lars Grael / Ronald Seiffert (BRA) - 62 (35+15+12)
16- Fábio Bodra / Arthur Lopes (BRA) - 63 (20+24+19)
19- Renato Cunha / Marcos Mascarenhas (BRA) - 64 (34+27+3)
23- Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada (BRA) - 72 (3+10+50)

Other informations on the oficial website : www.starworlds2010.com

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