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Sail-World.com : Laser World Championships - Slingsby holds his lead as black flags fly
Laser World Championships - Slingsby holds his lead as black flags fly
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Tom Slingsby continues to lead the fleet at the 2010 Laser World Championship after a tricky opening day of finals racing where nine sailors, including Australia’s two-time World Champion were disqualified from the opening race.
After a number of general recalls to start the day the race committee raised the black flag meaning that any boats over the line before the next start would be disqualified and plenty of key players were caught out including Slingsby, reigning Olympic champion Paul Goodison from Great Britain and leaders from earlier in the week Kiwi Michael Bullot and Croatian Luka Radelic.
'There was a knot of current pushing us over the line in that race,' said Slingsby. 'In all the general recalls I was very conservative, just trying to get away cleanly. On the recall that I got done, the boats around me kept pressing forward, I was well back in my group but unfortunately they pinned our group, somehow the boat to leward of me who was a boat length ahead of me didn’t get done, it was very frustrating as the last thing I wanted was a black flag to start the finals series.'
Slingsby put the disappointment of having to sit out the opening race behind him and bounced back to finish eighth in race two, giving him a 13 point lead over New Zealand’s Andrew Maloney and Great Britain’s Nick Thompson.
'Race two was nice in about 12-14 knots,' said Slingsby. 'I was very conservative on the start and didn’t get away too well. From there on I played the centre of the course but unfortunately couldn’t get many clear lanes.'
'I think I rounded about 15th, eighth to the bottom, lost a few up the beat and gained them back on the run to finish eighth,' he said. 'A good race to steady the nerves after getting a black flag'
'We’ve got two days of racing left so from here on it’s about conservative starts and just keeping it clean around the course cause I can’t have any more mistakes from here on,' said Slingsby.
After the first two races of Gold fleet Slingsby fared the best of the overnight leaders with Paul Goodison, who was second overnight, ending the day fifth while New Zealander Michael Bullot slipped from third to 10th.
The Australian Sailing Development Squad’s Ashley Brunning had a tough opening two Gold fleet races with a 26th in a tight race one before being disqualified for a second yellow flag at the top of the first beat in race two.
The Sydney based sailor ended the day in 14th position, 10 points outside the top 10.
In the silver fleet James Burman is the best placed Australian in 16th position after a fourth and a 21st, while Ryan Palk is following close behind in 21st and Tom Burton is 48th.
Queenslander Klade Hauschildt is the top Australian in the Bronze fleet in 14th, with Thor Schoenhoff 24th and Sean Bly 28th.
Ki-raphael Sulkowski finished the day 32nd, ahead of Jared West 42nd, Ryan Stoddart 45th and Ashley Lloyd 49th.
Racing continues on Saturday with the 2010 Laser World Champion to be crowned on Sunday.
http://www.australiansailingteam.com.au
by Craig Heydon
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11:35 PM Fri 3 Sep 2010 GMT
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