49er World Championships - Australians shoot up the leader board
by Craig Heydon on 29 Sep 2013
Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen at the 2013 49er World Championships Christophe Launay
At the 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships, Australian sailors Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have shot up the leader board on the penultimate day of racing in Marseille, France.
Outteridge and Jensen started the day in 18th and reveled in the stronger winds that greeted crews on Saturday, moving up to seventh overall and putting themselves in contention for a podium finish.
The defending World Champions and London 2012 gold medallists began the day with their first win of the week, going on to finish third in the next two races and round the day out with another win.
The results leave the pair in seventh, just 25 points off the lead with three double point theatre style races to be contested on Sunday.
'It was a massive snakes and ladders day,' said Outteridge. 'Every race was different in terms of where you had to go, so there was no pattern to it, which we like.
'We haven’t done any of the theatre style racing, but it’s three double points races,' he said. 'If you get it wrong you get 60 points. Pretty easy for it to go bad.
'I think tomorrow will be lighter, will be shifty and ugly racing, and we’re going to have to fight pretty hard,' said Outteridge. 'But at least we might have a chance of fighting back enough to get on the podium.'
David Gilmour and Sam Phillips are currently 10th in the repechage fleet, with Will Phillips and Rhys Mara just behind in 14th.
In the silver fleet Luke Parkinson and Fang Warren are third, ahead of George Davies and Jack Lloyd in 27th. Peter Kendall and Harry Bethwaite ended the day third in the bronze fleet.
Australia’s three 49erFX crews will be fighting for the final position in the medal races on Sunday, with Olivia Price and Caitlin Elks missing out on automatic qualification by one place.
Price and Elks finished the day 10th overall on equal points with the ninth placed Danes, with the top nine going straight through to the theatre style races. The pair will now race against positions 10 through to 20 for the final spot in the final.
Price and Elks began the day with a seventh and a fifth, before finishing the day with a pair of 13ths.
Fellow Australians Tessa Parkinson and Chelsea Hall are also in the running for the final spot and currently sit in 13th. Parkinson and Hall finished Saturday’s four races with a third, ninth, 16th and a ninth.
Haylee Outteridge and Nina Curtis are just one place further behind in 14th following a 13th, 14th, seventh and 11th.
All three crews will be pushing hard to get themselves into the medal races on Sunday afternoon.
49er Results - Overall after DAY 5 - as of September 29, 2013 - 10:46 GOLD Fleet
Sailed: 8, Discards: 1, To count: 7, Entries: 9, Scoring system: Appendix A
GOLD-PF Fleet
Sailed: 8, Discards: 1, To count: 7, Entries: 13, Scoring system: Appendix A
REPECHAGE Fleet
Sailed: 6, Discards: 1, To count: 5, Entries: 20, Scoring system: Appendix A
SILVER Fleet
Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 29, Scoring system: Appendix A
|
29th
|
SILVER
|
CAN
|
709
|
RNYC
|
Jon Ladha
|
Dan Inkpen
|
174.0
|
(30.0
DNC)
|
30.0
DNC
|
30.0
DNC
|
30.0
DNC
|
30.0
DNC
|
BRONZE Fleet - Sailed: 4, Discards: 0, To count: 4, Entries: 26, Scoring system: Appendix A
For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit
Australian Sailing Team website.
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