AUSTRIA'S TOP IN TORNADO'S

by Ian Grant on 19 Sep 2000 Austria's high performance Olympic Tornado class combination of Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher have proved to be the masters of light wind sailing.

This has been a feature in the four races decided with the Austrians having the all angle sailing speed and the tactical ability to sail the faster downwind tacking angles to record a very consistent 3-1-2-1 score.

They have broken away from the match race on the first day when the equally talented Australian crew of Darren Bundock and John Forbes shared the lead with their 1-3 score.

Hagara supported by the skill of Steinacher was able to take control of the pointscore in another day of light wind sailing yesterday where they recorded a 2-1 compared with the Australian's 4-4.

Make no mistake both crews are very evenly matched and are expected to set up their own private match race for the Gold Medal.

However Forbes and Bundock need to recover some points on the Austria team today but that may be difficult as similar winds to yesterday have been forecast.

This will present an interesting tactical duel between the two brilliant Tornado sailing teams on the course today.

No doubt Austria are favoured to retain their 5 point leading margin while the Australians are also expected to hold their 8 point advantage over the German World champions Roland Gaebler and Rene Schwall.

Fernando Leon and Jose Luis Ballester the defending Gold Medallists from Atlanta presently in 11th place and a massive 32 points behind the leaders will need to finish in the top placing's today or fail to win a medal.