Bekkering and Kisters (NED) new leaders 29er World

by Di Pearson / Sail-world.com/uk on 7 Jan 2008
The 29er World Championship took a turn today as the 102-strong international fleet was divided into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerald groups for the Final series and a new overall leader emerged.

Annemiek Bekkering and Jeske Kisters from The Netherlands took the lead of the Championship today after four races. The Dutch pair showed superb skill on the hugely shifty and fluky course to come into their own to day with 2-1-11-2 results in Races 1 to 4. Their six point lead over nearest rivals, James Peters and Ed Fitzgerald (GBR) is well deserved.

The British pairs 12-4-5-10 results reflect the conditions on the course, where breezes ranged anywhere from 3-12 knots, with many holes on the course, it was a case of paying attention and experience.

Steven Thomas/Jasper Warren (AUS) who have twice been at the top of the leaderboard now, dropped to third place today following 16-12-4-3 results. They are one point behind the British duo.

Alexandra Maloney/Blair Tuke (NZL) have lifted today and are now fourth overall, counting a win in Race 4 of the Final series.

Mon Bleddyn and Tom Humpheries (GBR) also suffered an up and down day, after their great performance in the qualifiers. They finished in 8th after 15-6-9-14 always just off the pace of Peters and Fitzgerald.

Max Richardson and Alex Groves (GBR) are in 9th and Becky Diamond and Fiona Hampshire in 17th

29er Worlds - Gold Fleet results after 4 races

1 NED BEKKERING, Annemiek 3 5 6 4 1 4 7 2 15 12 2 1 11 2 29
KISTERS, Jeske
2 GBR PETERS, James 2 1 4 1 4 3 1 1 12 5 12 4 5 10 35
FITZGERALD, Ed
3 AUS THOMAS, Steven 1 1 1 4 2 2 3 7 1 1 16 12 4 3 36
WARREN, Jasper
4 NZL MALONEY, Alexandra 3 3 5 9 2 1 2 4 2 7 18 11 6 1 42
TUKE, Blair
5 DEN ANDERSEN, Katrine Ditmar 4 2 1 3 4 1 10 2 12 15 5 3 13 9 42
LUXHOI, Rie
6 DEN SOGAARD, Henrik Rask 1 3 1 2 3 3 1 6 1 3 22 5 10 4 43
KRISTENSEN, Soren Wiegand
7 AUS WHITE, Byron 3 3 3 5 3 8 5 8 2 3 1 9 17 6 43
RYAN, William
8 GBR MON, Bleddyn 6 1 2 2 2 10 2 4 2 1 15 6 9 14 49
HUMPHREYS, Tom
9 GBR RICHARDSON, Max 2 3 7 12 1 1 1 1 4 2 9 21 15 5 53
GROVES, Alex
10 AUS ROSE, Joel 1 4 2 6 1 6 6 9 3 1 6 10 14 17 54
WOODS, Jamie
11 AUS PEATE, Nick 2 2 3 5 5 2 3 13 7 3 7 13 8 20 57
MARA, Rhys
12 SIN LIU, Justin 6 7 4 1 11 2 4 2 17 9 8 7 22 12 64
CHENG, Sherman
13 AUS CHAPMAN, Andrew 13 4 2 1 5 5 5 11 14 9 20 15 3 7 65
CHAPMAN, William
14 AUS DOYLE, Lachlan 1 6 7 13 11 11 6 6 5 2 3 16 16 16 72
WELLS, Shaun
15 AUS O'ROURKE, Sean 3 10 2 4 1 2 3 5 27 1 4 18 23 23 76
WALKER, Evan
16 RSA JACOBS, Taariq 9 2 1 4 5 5 2 11 12 7 13 23 12 13 77
MALAN, Neil
17 GBR DIAMOND, Becky 8 5 12 2 3 4 4 3 19 15 10 2 19 24 77
HAMPSHIRE, Fiona
18 AUS NATTRASS, Hannah 5 8 3 15 2 5 2 3 3 6 11 14 21 22 79
MULLER, Michelle
19 AUS LLEWELYN, William 18 1 8 2 5 1 3 1 11 18 17 25 2 18 80
MIGHELL, Harry
20 AUS SMITH, Shane 4 7 7 7 7 10 9 4 3 10 21 19 7 11 81
MARTIN, Rayshele
21 GBR PETERS, Frances 10 12 5 5 7 3 1 1 13 8 14 22 20 8 83
LASKO, Claire
22 AUS SLY, James 6 6 7 9 6 5 5 7 11 27 24 20 1 15 84
GILLIES, Andrew
23 GBR DIAMOND, Hannah 8 5 6 10 6 4 8 4 4 2 25 8 25 21 96
MACLEAN, Dicken
24 GBR DURHAM, Thomas 2 8 8 6 4 6 7 3 1 27 19 24 24 19 100
COOPER, Alex
Racing continues at the Sail Melbourne event tomorrow. Hosted by Sorrento Couta Sailing Boat Club, racing concludes on Wednesday afternoon when the Championship winner will be announced.