NETHERLANDS BEATS NEW-ZEALAND IN SOLING SAIL-OFF MATCH
by Isabelle Musy on 28 Sep 2000
Isabelle Musy
It was a very close finish between Dutch Roy Heiner and Kiwi Rod Davis in today's Soling sail-off match,
Heiner crossed the finish line only one boat length ahead of Davis. The Dutch sailor is therefore the one moving into the Soling Match Racing semi-final.
Heiner was best out of the start and rounded the top mark 10 seconds ahead of Davis.
But downwind Davis caught and came really close to Heiner. The latter gybed to cover his opponent.
In the second beat, New-Zealand tacked early to try to take advantage of the right hand side of the course. But Heiner kept protecting that right hand-side pushing Davis away to the lay line.
In the second run, it was one gibe to the finish line. Davis came again quite close but Heiner won it by just one boat length.
"I think we won the race in the first beat when we were both next to each other in a wind-shift to the left. I used that shift to gain a couple of boats length and control the race", explained Heiner.
The Dutch skipper was really happy and relieved. "Yesterday we thought we were going to watch the semi-final and now we're going to sail it! It shows how fast things can change ", said Heiner after the finish.
In the semi-final, Roy Heiner will face German three Gold Medallist Jochen Schuemann when Denmark's Barcelona Gold Medallist Jesper Bank will face Norway's Hermann Johannessen.
"Tomorrow I will sail against Schuemann. He's my training partner and therefore we know each other very well. It will be very close racing. The results I'm sure will be 3 to 2, but I don't know for who".
Today's sail-off match was decided yesterday by the International Jury after Dutch Roy Heiner had lodged a request for redress alleging that the tie-break procedure for quarter final had been incorrectly applied.
The International Jury awarded Roy Heiner's redress in respect of the tie breaking procedure to be applied for the Soling Match Racing.
The Jury concluded that as the "Sailing Instructions could reasonably be interpreted in favour of either boat, Netherlands is entitled to redress".
The decision was to conduct a sail-off one match between New Zealand and Netherlands to decide 4th and 5th place in the Quarter Final Round Robin.
The Jury had decided that this was the fairest arrangement to be made for all boats affected.
SOLING MATCH RACING SEMI FINAL: GERMANY, DENMARK, NORWAY,
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