MASTER LASER TACTICIANS DUEL FOR GOLD MEDAL

by Ian Grant on 27 Sep 2000 Four years ago Great Britain's Ben Ainslie learnt some important lessons in the art form of sailing consistently in an Olympic regatta from the eventual Gold Medal winner Robert Scheidt of Brazil.

Yesterday on a wet, cold and windy Sydney Harbour Ainslie stepped up in class to dictate those lessons to Scheidt when he claimed another very important 10 points to lead the Gold Medal race by a remarkable 14 points.

Ainslie who finished with an uncharacteristic 23rd place in heat 1 won by Scheidt has recovered to record a 1-1-3-4-4-11 compared with the 2-23-1-12-1-21 by the defending Gold Medallist and four times World title winner Sheidt.

On the results from the first seven races these two high performance aquatic athletes who have a strong grip on the science of sailing and the associated 'mind games' are heading towards a private match race for the Gold Medal over the next three days.

The only possible outside threat will come from Portuguese helmsman Gustavo Lima, third 7 points adrift of Scheidt and Australian Michael Blackburn another two penalty points away from the Bronze Medal with 47 penalty points lost in the 7 races decided so far.

When racing resumes today, Ainslie and Scheidt will face another test of match racing science after an electrical storm moved through Sydney last night.

This frontal system combined with the low which remains off the coast will have a controlling influence on the wind velocity and direction stability.

No doubt this will add further interest as Scheidt who was chased by Ainslie for the Gold Medal in Savannah tries to gain some catch up points on the tricky Sydney Harbour waters in the remaining races or lose his grasp on winning back to back Olympic Laser titles.

PROGRESS POINTS (Official 7races 1drop): GBR 24pts 1, BRA 38pts 2, POR 45pts 3, AUS 47pts 4, AUT 56pts 5, RSA 58pts 6, ITA 61pts 7, SWE 63pts 8, NED 66pts 9, NOR 69pts 10.