AUSTRIA SURE OF GOLD IN TORNADO'S
by Ian Grant on 22 Sep 2000
Rachel Nahum
Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher firmed their grip on the 2000 Olympic Games Tornado Catamaran Gold Medal with a brilliant light wind performance today.
When the high performance Austrian sailing team left the Rushcutters Bay Marina this morning the Gold Medal victory was in sight and within four hours of leaving the dock they had the major medal win under control
Hagara has always been noted for his gifted light wind helming skills and this was fully expressed on the waters off North Head where they were the complete masters of speed and tactics to record a 1-1 and secure an almost unbeatable lead over their Australian rivals Darren Bundock and Darren Forbes.
In race 7 the first race of the day the Austrian and Australian teams measured up to test each others character in a test of speed but it soon became evident that the Austrian's winner of three previous races in similar variable winds were all geared up for the 'Drag Race'.
As expected Hagara had little to lose and every to gain and sailed to a conservative plan as he and crew mate Steinacher stretched their lead in the championship with a 1minute 7 second win.
They moved further ahead with an equally impressive win in race 8 finishing 37 seconds clear of the 2000 World champions Roland Gaebler and Rene Schwall of Germany with the Atlanta Gold Medallists Fernando Leon and Jose Luis Ballester of Spain third and the Australians fourth.
RESULTS Race 7: (Provisional) AUT 1, AUS 2, FRA 3, PUR 4, NZL 5, ARG 6, GER 7, RUS 8, ESP 9, DEN 10. Race 8: (Provisional) AUT 1, GER 2, ESP 3, AUS 4, BRA 5, ITA 6, NZL 7, PUR 8, FRA 9, SWE 10.
PROVISIONAL POINTS: AUT 10pts 1, AUS 22pts 2, FRA 34pts 3.
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