Australia top five at Laser European Trophy

by Di Pearson on 25 Jul 2004 A black flag in the penultimate race has stopped Michael Blackburn (AUS) from winning the Laser European Trophy which finished in Warnemunde, Germany overnight, but his win in the final race ensured his fifth place result.

Blackburn lead the 101 strong fleet early in the 11-race two drop series, but due to scoring a DNF and a BFD in the Gold fleet finals, in which competitors could only drop one race, Blackburn was toppled from the top spot.

Belgium’s Philippe Bergmans finished his day with two third places to win both the European Championship and the European Trophy event. .

The good news for Australia, though, was the second place finish of Tom Slingsby from the NSW north coast, boding well for his future in the class and sailing in general.

Slingsby won Race 8 and finished eighth in the final race to second place. A keen and talented sailor, he has had Olympic ambitions for some time now and four year’s down the track may well see him in Beijing.

Two Olympic representatives filled out the Trophy series fourth and fifth places; Paul Goodison (GBR) made a big comeback from 29th earlier in the series to finish third (second in the Championship), whilst Mark Mendelblatt (USA) did pretty much the same to finish fourth (third Championship).

Blackburn, Goodison and Mendelblatt will next face-off at the Athens Games. Blackburn’s greatest rival for Gold is the ever-consistent Brazillian, Robert Scheidt, but his more dangerous opponent perhaps, is the sometimes unknown quantity of Goodison, who when in form is brilliant.



1 BEL BERGMANS Philippe, 33,0 4 (6) (9) 2 5 3 3 4 3 3 6

2 AUS SLINGSBY Tom 49,0 7 (bfd) 1 11 4 5 6 (13) 6 1 8

3 GBR GOODISON Paul, 54,0 14 2 14 (bfd) (dnf) 11 2 1 2 4 4

4 USA MENDELBLATT Mark 64,0 18 2 5 (36) 14 1 (20) 2 13 6 3

5 AUS BLACKBURN Michael 72,0 1 1 3 1 1 4 (5) 8 (dnf) bfd 1

website: http://www.laserchampionships.org/eur04/