Scheidt wins record seventh World title – Blackburn misses his chance

by Event Media/Sail-World on 20 May 2004 Overnight in Bitez, Turkey, Robert Scheidt (BRA) made sailing history, in winning the Harken Laser World Championship, Scheidt won his seventh world title and Michael Blackburn (AUS), his major adversary, finished third overall, not finishing the final race.

The expected showdown between Scheidt and Blackburn was not what it promised to be and perhaps, in retrospect, Scheidt was remembering why he did not win Gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and decided it would not happen again, and that he had to take charge – which he did.

Blackburn, on the other hand, gave up second place overall when he withdrew from the final race, allowing Mark Mendelblatt (USA) to sneak through to grab second place by one point.

Some of the best conditions of the Championships provided the perfect setting for an epic final which has become the norm in Laser World championships and the Olympics.

In 13 to 18 knots of wind, the first attempted start was postponed when the wind started to back through 25 degrees and the course was reset.

The fleet got away cleanly under a black flag at the third attempt and split evenly up the first windward leg. Series leader, Robert Scheidt, had a good start in the middle of the line to leeward of his nearest competitor, Michael Blackburn, the only sailor who could prevent Scheidt taking his seventh Laser title.

Scheidt took up the story. ‘I managed to pinch him off and he had to tack away. I worked the middle to left and rounded the first mark around tenth with Michael three places behind me’.

Scheidt continued, ‘on the reach, I got a yellow flag penalty and had to make a 720 turn and Michael passed me. We sailed together downwind, and then I passed him up on the second upwind and rounded seventh. On the downwind he came closer and was also catching me on the last reach.

On the last short upwind I got a second yellow flag, just before the finish and had to retire This was very frustrating as well as disappointing, and I only had a few minutes to recover my composure and concentrate on the second race.’

Out in front, 19 year old Tom Slingsby (AUS), had established a comfortable lead from Luka Radelic (CRO) and Anders Nyholm (DEN), who held their positions to the finish. This result was a personal best for the up-and-coming Slingsby and should see him on his way to bigger and better things.

In the second race the tables had turned and Blackburn started chasing Scheidt in the pre starts.

Scheidt went on to say, ‘we had a bit of a match race, but I managed to escape from him on all three attempted starts.

In the final start, I started to windward of him and I rolled him and he had to tack away. I then had a clear lane and went left and rounded the top mark about sixth and Michael was a long way behind.

I had a lot of emotion and was excited because I had another chance.’

Mark Mendelblatt led the race from start to finish with Scheidt pulling through to second and Hamish Pepper (NZL) worked excessively hard to finish third in that race and fourth overall in the Championship.

Blackburn had too much to do and could not influence the results, so opted to use his second discard and take an early shower.

Mendelblatt’s first, together with a fourth from the previous race, was enough to give him the runner up spot one point ahead of Blackburn.

Tom Slingsby finished in seventh place overall, his best international result to-date, ahead of England’s talented Paul Goodison (GBR), who improved throughout to finish eighth.

In other Australian results, Brendan Casey dropped to 20th overall after being black flagged in the final race, while young Ricky Ironmonger had some great results, in what would have to rank as one of the toughest Olympic classes, to finish a very pleasing 62nd from the original 145 boat fleet.

Results Laser – Gold Scores take into account two discards

1, BRA 179787, SCHEIDT Robert, 16,0, -6, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, (dnf), 2

2, USA 179914, MENDELBLATT Mark, 24,0, 4, -25, 3, 1, 3, 4, -8, 4, 4, 1

3, AUS 179773, BLACKBURN Michael, 25,0, 3, -6, 2, 4, 5, 1, 1, 2, 7, (dnf)

4, NZL 179883, PEPPER Hamish, 49,0, 1, 8, -29, 7, 2, 5, 3, 11, -14, 12

5, SWE 179905, SUNESON Karl, 49,0, 6, -16, 1, 2, 9, 2, -17, 16, 8, 5

6, AUT 179777, GERITZER Andreas, 50,0, -13, 3, 7, 3, 9, 2, 16, 1, 9, -32

7, AUS 179776, SLINGSBY Tom, 63,0, 11, 18, 8, (dsq), 7, 7, 5, 6, 1, -30

8, GBR 179835, GOODISON Paul, 67,0, (bfd), 14, 2, 2, 12, 3, 6, -32, 22, 6

9, NOR 179878, MOBERG Peer, 74,0, 12, -26, 14, 6, 4, 6, 4, 20, (bfd), 8

10, CRO 179809, VUJASINOVIC Milan, 99,0, 18, 3, 11, 7, -32, 18, 14, 15, 13, -41

20, AUS 179774, CASEY Brendan, 134,0, 15, -25, 3, 6, 6, 3, 44, 52, 5, (bfd)

62, AUS 179775, IRONMONGER Ricky, 267,0, 33, -45, 21, 23, 14, 18, 43, 67, 48, (bfd)