Last day of the Finals races at RS-X Worlds

by Event media on 30 Sep 2006
Last day of the Finals at the RS:X World Championships - one race scheduled. The wind looked light. We waited until close to 14:00. And as before the men's and women's gold fleets were the first cab off the rank.

14:35 and the women were off and racing, the men having to wait a single postponement of around 10 minutes. The conditions on Trentino course looked light. 80% of the fleet had track forward. Those who hit the corners capitalised. Marina Alabau(ESP) sailed out from the pack early. She went hard left in the straps and came in first to the top mark.

Sailors who chose the centre lanes missed out. Li Ling(CHN) rounded second followed by Pauline Perrin(FRA). Current overall place holder Alessandra Sensini(ITA) rounded in seventh place. Bryony Shaw(GBR) and Antonia Frey(GRE) were caught way back in the pack. Bryony was able to find gaps and fight back to a reasonable position, Antonia wasn't so lucky. Zofia Klepecka(POL) had a major drama. She some how got a small rock stuck in her mast track and was unable to push her mast track forward. Affectively cancelling her race.

Alessandra Sensini continued to push forward through the leading group. Followed by Barbara Kendall. Marina played it smart, covering and keeping the plan simple. The next 5 positions constantly switched and changed Alessandra made it up to second, only to be passed by Barbara Kendall and Charline Picon(FRA) on the last reach to the finish.

Romy Kinzl(GER) sailed into fifth followed by Faustine Merret(FRA)in sixth Place. Bryony scored a 14th, which was good enough to give her the tenth place and a position in medal rounds. She looked pretty relieved after the race.

Then the Men

A postponement flag was hoisted for about ten minutes. The wind went a little bit funky, but soon settled down. The pin end was favoured 'AGAIN'. So 90% of the fleet slammed the right side, directly under the cliffs. Full speed planing in 15 knots, the start line definitely had open spaces yet some people still managed to be over at the start.

The top guys not only blazed a trail clear of the fleet, Tom Ahley(NZL) and Miarczynski Przemek(POL) left everybody standing still. It was all all these two from start to finish. Tom crossed first closely followed by Miarczynski.

Two Frenchmen found their legs Julien Quentel and Julien Bontemp got up to speed finishing third and fourth. Joeri Van Dijk and Nick Dempsey ended up in the low teens. But still holding onto fourth and fifth overall. Casper had a fifth place which keeps him in second (19points). Two points behind leader Tom Ashley(17points), and three points ahead of Miarczynski(22points).

The top ten positions are now locked in. Both Toni Wilhelm (GER) and Nicolas Le Gal have made it into the top ten for the first time. Also bear in mind the top five sailors are all in a position to be on the podium. So it's crunch time for all.

Men - Leading positions:

1 NZL Ashley, Tom 17pts
2 NED Bouman, Casper 19
3 POL Miarczynski, Przemek 22
4 GBR Dempsey, Nick 37
5 NED Van Dijk, Joeri 40
6 POL Myszka, Piotr 62
7 BRA Santos, Ricardo 64
8 UKR Oberemko, Maxime 64
9 GER Wilhelm, Toni 68
10 FRA Le Gal, Nicolas 73
11 GRE Kaklamanakis, Nikolaos 76
12 FRA Launay, Samuel 89
13 FRA Quentel, Julien U21 90
14 POR Rodrigues, Joao 90
15 SUI Stauffacher, Richard 96
16 FRA Bontemps, Julien 99
17 FRA Guyader, Nicolas 106
18 NZL Tobin, Jon-Paul 119
19 ISR Fridman, Gal 121
20 ARG Reutemann, Mariano 125

Women - Leading positions:

1 ITA Sensini, Alessandra 26
2 ESP Alabau Neira, Marina 28
3 FRA Merret, Faustine 40
4 POL Klepacka, Zofia U21 58
5 NZL Kendall, Barbara 77
6 FRA Picon, Charline 86
7 GER Kinzl, Romy 90
8 AUS Crisp, Jessica 94
9 GRE Frai, Antonia 98
10 GBR Shaw, Bryony 102
11 POL Galecka, Anna 109
12 CHN Li, Ling U21 110
13 POL Hlavaty, Marta 117
14 GBR Johnston, Christine 119
15 CHN Duan, Mingli 125
16 NOR Staalstrom, Jannicke 125
17 CHN Chen, Qiubin 135
18 FRA Richard, Eugenie U21 136
19 GBR Horwood, Lucy 136
20 GER Sradnick, 143