Day 3 SIRS a tough day on competitors

by Di Pearson on 17 Dec 2007 'I’m glad they didn’t hold the planned three races for us today, it would have been too much,' said a weary Darren Bundock (AUS) on coming ashore at Woollahra Sailing Club after he and Glenn Ashby won both Tornado races which has kept them in the lead of their series.

'We didn’t have any capsizes and we didn’t break anything. The wind was huge and funneling down the harbour to where we raced on the Sound near Manly,' Bundock said.

'The earlier race was good to win, but the second was better. We got to the top mark and just took off – we got well away from the rest of the fleet. It just felt right. 'We couldn’t be happier with our speed and boat handling – and that we didn’t hurt ourselves. It was ‘on the edge’ sailing,' he said.

Leigh McMillan/Will Howden (GBR), already selected into their Olympic team had a good day too. They are second overall with one day of the Olympic class regatta remaining and a race drop in place.

'We only arrived in Sydney one day before the regatta started and we’ve had a couple of month’s break, so second overall is good for us,' said Howden. It was very hard sailing. Very, very windy and gusty – big waves rolling in from offshore. There’s was lots of capsizing going on, so we were happy just to stay upright today,' he said adding: Bundy sailed too fast for us today.'

Three German teams are vying for the one Olympic place in the Tornado and with Johannes Polgar/Florian Spalteholz breaking gear and missing the second race; it was team mates Tino and Niko Mittlemeier’s turn to shine.

The 22 and 26 year-old blonde brothers are placed third overall in the competition. 'We have to sail off against two other teams; Yo Yo’s (Polgar) and Roland Gaebler, who’s been to five Olympics. We hope it’s a younger team who gets to go this time,' Niko laughed.

'We’ve been practicing in Sydney for a month to get good at the heavy winds, we are better in light winds normally, but we had a very good day today. Our Olympic trials are at Sail Melbourne Asia Pacific series, then the worlds in Auckland, and the final one is Hyeres – I think the first two will be very windy, so Tino and me are glad we are getting better in lots of wind.'

In other results, Ben Ainslie (GBR) won both Finn races to capitalise on his lead, now 12 points clear of his nearest rival Jonas Hoeg-Christiensen (DEN). Adversary Ed Wright is now third placed after scoring a pair of second places as the duel for Olympic selection heats up. Current world champion, Rafael Trujillo is next, two points behind Wright.

Jannicke Stalstrom (NOR) and Jessica Crisp (AUS), maintain their lead and second places in the RS:X Women’s after going toe to toe today, the pair each scoring a win and a second in Races 6 and 7.

Michael Leigh is the new leader in the Laser. The Canadian scored 3-5-7 results and with a race drop in play, is four points ahead of fellow Canadian Bernard Luttmer. The next two places are filled by Mike Bullot (NZL) who moves down a place into third and yesterday’s leader Andrew Murdoch (NZL), who dropped to fourth with 4-21-6 results – his first glitch in the series.

Tom Slingsby (AUS) is fifth placed following a mixed bag of results. Winning Race 5, he dropped down the leaderboard to 22nd in Race 6. Sources on the course report he dropped back from the lead pack when he unsuccessfully tried to port tack the fleet. However, the confident red head came back with a second place in Race 7, using his DSQ of Race 1 as his race drop.

Nathan Wilmot/Malcolm Page (AUS) sailed confidently today, placing second in Race 4 and winning Race 5. The two lead the series by just one point to the French Bonnaud brothers, Ben and Romain with 5-2 results.

A win and a third has helped the highly ranked Coster brothers, Sven and Kalle (NED) fill out third place, just five points off the lead. This is a tight competition that isn’t as clear cut as some of the other classes.

Israel’s Nike Kornecki/Vered Bouskila hold onto their slim lead in the Women’s 470 after scoring a win in Race 4 and a fourth in Race 5. Stalwarts of the class, Ingrid Petitijean/Nadege Douroux (FRA) on hot on their tails just two points away with a race drop in place after good results of second and a win in Race 5. Emmanuelle Rol/Anne-Sophie Thilo (SUI) are up in third place following 6-2 results.

It was a hard day on the water for all. After taking a shower and eating, most exited host venue Woollahra Sailing Club very quickly, some headed off for a massage and others home for dinner and bed to be rested for the final races tomorrow.