Day 5- ISAF Youth Worlds - three Golds won

by Richard Gladwell on 21 Jul 2005 Three Gold Medals have been won on the penultimate day of the ISAF World Youth Championships in Busan, Korea.

In the Mistral Boys, Poland's Lukasz Grodzicki, with a string of six wins, has taken the Gold medal with two races left to sail. Spain's Blanca Manchon Dominguez has managed the same feat in the Mistral Girls event - with five wins and using a fourth in the opening race as her discard. With one race left to sail, she can safely claim the Gold medal. French 420 Girls crew, Marie Lumeau/Claire Bossard, have strung together seven wins in ten races. With two races to sail, they have a massive 20 point margin over the second placed US crew.

Meanwhile, Kiwi eyes will be on their best placed sailor Blair McLay, who has a task ahead of him if he is to gain a podium finish in the Boys Laser event.

Yesterday, the points situation in the Laser was such that whoever blinked first amongst the top five would probably fall out of the mix. In the one race sailed, Giles Scott (GBR) and Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA), hung in to finish fifth and first respectively. However, for McLay and his rival Rutger van Schaaardenberg, both blinked together – with McLay finishing 12th and van Schaardenburg 29th – which he 'lost' as his second discard. The net result is that McLay is six points behind in fourth place.

Only one race was sailed, due to a heavy fog that rolled onto the course, leaving McLay tomorrow's two races in which to close the gap.

In the Girls Laser Radial, Olivia Powrie remains in 10th overall after scoring fifth and a 15th places. She is just one point clear of the 11th placed boat with one race remaining. At the top of the table, Paige Railey (USA) has retained a five point lead over Xu Lijia (CHN) – they each won a race – with Railey placing sixth in Race 10 and Lijia sixth in Race 11.

In the Girls 420, with the French crew unbeatable, the race is on for the minor placings between the USA’s Megan Magill/Briana Povancha with 30 points, Brazil’s Mariana Basilio/Gabriela Biekarck on 31 and Hannah Mills/Peggy Webster (GBR) with 34. Kiwi crew of Georgina Hill/Michelle Kennedy remain in 18th place overall in the 21 boat fleet.

In the Boys 420, Wee Chin Teo/Terence Koh (SIN) have a four-point lead over Japan's Wataru Saito/Hiroto Yoshinaga. Tom Mallindine/James Clark GBR are third placed but 22 points behind the leader. Peter Burling/Bruce Kennedy (NZL) lie 15th overall after a latest race finish of 17th place, but are within striking distance of two crews who are higher on the points table and could progress by the end of the series.

With the Boys Mistral Gold medal already decided,its down to the minor placings. Second and third look likely to come from Pierre Lecoq (FRA), currently second placed with 29 points, third placed Juan Moreno (ESP), on 33 and Israel's Nimrod Mashiah, fourth on 36.

New Zealand’s Antonio Cozzolino remains in 17th place overall, having his best day yet with results of 11th and 14th in the 17 strong fleet. Good results in the final race could see him lift two or three places in the finals standings.

Blanca Dominguz (ESP) has also won the Gold medal in the Girls Mistral with one race left in the regatta. She finished the day with a first and second and cannot be beaten. New Zealands Steffanie Williams is holding 11th place overall after placing 12th and eighth today, however she is five points astray of the top ten, and will need a few things to work in her favour if she is to progress.

In the Hobie 16, Rory and Kelly Godman (NZL) had a good day turning in a pair of ninth placings but remained in 10th place overall. At the top of the table Australia’s Evan Walker and Kyle Langford have a single point lead with two races remaining, over Tom Phipps and Jon Cook (GBR) who placed second in today’s race.

Racing continues tomorrow with some classes sailing just the one race and the others two.