POWER STRUGGLE IN FINN CLASS.
by Ian Grant. on 23 Sep 2000
Katrina Butler
Defending Olympic Finn dinghy sailing champion Mateusz Kusnierewisz is physically prepared for the start of his title defence on Sydney Harbour later today.
The powerfully built 193cm, 97kg Poland sailor has spent numerous hours on the tricky Sydney Harbour waters over the past week fine tuning his sails for what promises to be a very interesting series to decide the Olympic medals.
This physically demanding 4.5m monotype dinghy rigged with a 10.62sq.m sail area and first introduced for Olympic sailing at Helsinki in 1952 is a handful for most sailors even in the lightest of winds.
In fact it is known Internationally as the 'Torture Rack' and requires the skill and determination of a special athlete to succeed.
The 25 year Mateusz Kusnierewisz proved he was one of those special aquatic athletes in Atlanta when he outmuscled and outsailed Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium and Aimilios Papathanasiou of Greece to win his Gold Medal .
All three highly qualified skippers head a very impressive 25 Nation fleet for the first races on the open waters on the Tasman Sea course.
Canadian Richard Clarke heads the World ranking's and is therefore rated as the favourite ahead of Kusznierewicz and Fredrik Loof of Sweden however all the top skippers will be in an even 'playing field' when they tension the rigs today.
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