Laser & Radial Europeans- Day 2 Good for Downunder
by Richard Gladwell + Blair McLay on 10 Aug 2005
Idyllic sailing conditions prevailed for the Laser Radial European Championships, allowing three races to be sailed. David Kuzmanic and Natasa Seric
Only one race was sailed in the 2005 European Laser Championships in Cartagena, Spain, due to uncooperative winds.
Australia's Tom Slingsby, had a very good day, finishing in second place, his second of the regatta and he has moved up into third place overall, one point behind Olympic Gold Medalist Robert Scheidt (BRA) who finished ninth yesterday. The series is led by Andreas Geritzer (AUT) who has finished in podium places in each race.
Zhuik sponsored, Michael Bullot (NZL) made the best of a difficult day scoring third place in the only race sailed - his second podium placing of the regatta, and clearly something that will stand him in good stead once discards kick in and he can drop 42nd and 22nd placings which he is currently carrying in his score.
Top placed Kiwi is still Andrew Murdoch, however he slipped from ninth place overall to be 14th overnight with a 26th place on the water. Blair McLay, NZ's ISAF Youth Representative, who finished fourth in the Worlds in Korea, found it a big step up into the Open fleet finishing 33rd to lie in 96th place overall - which should improve if he can discard the DSC in his score from the third race, yesterday.
Blair McLay explains the day as he saw it: Only one race again today. Same problems with the wind as yesterday. Mike Bullot finished 3rd Andrew Murdoch finished about 26th and I was low 30´s I think. The two fleets finished together so it´s pretty hard to say for sure. Yesterday the Kiwis didn´t do as well as I thought. Andrew was 12th Mike about 40 I think and I was one of the many who finished outside the time limit.
Blair McLay is sponsored by Vision Senior Living, Premium Real Estate, Navman, Onyx, Peter Snell Institute of sport and Hopper Developments.
In the Laser Radial European Championships, sailed in Split, Croatia, Jo Aleh had 4,8,14 placings overnight and lies in 15th overall with a discard. Sarah Winther had 23, 14 and 5th to lie 35th overall. The series is being dominated by Paige Railey (USA) the current ISAF Youth Worlds gold medalist, who scored two wins and a second place in the second day of racing. Top Australian sailor is Krystle Weir who finished the second day with placings of 3,11,14 to lie in 24th position overall after applying the discard.
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