FINN CHAMPS GOLD MEDAL DEFENCE ON TRACK.
by Ian Grant. on 23 Sep 2000
Katrina Butler
Poland's defending Olympic Finn class sailing champion Mateusz Kusznierewicz mastered light variable 6-8 knot South West winds off Sydney Heads to win the first race of the 2000 series today.
As expected the battle for the lead out of the start was intense with the first 22 yachts in the 25 nation fleet locked in a spirited tacking duel up the first windward beat.
All of the leading skippers were forced to take the stern pass option as they raced just centimetres apart when positions changed on almost every wind switch.
Russ Silvestri (USA) won the war of nerves to clear the weather mark just ahead of a wall of rivals with 22 skippers clearing the mark in just under a minute.
Kusznierewicz was hard on the stern of Silvestri and Ali Enver Adakan of Turkey, he then exercised his superior light down wind sailing technique to slip into the lead and gradually build a 22 second lead by the 4th mark while the minor places changed regularly astern.
Iain Percy the Great Britain helmsman improved from 4th at the first mark to hold second at the fourth mark 17 seconds clear of Silvestri.
However the defending champion Kusznierewicz was all class eventually scoring a comfortable 2minute 41 second win from Percy with another 51 seconds to Silvestri.
RESULTS: (Provisional) : POL 1, GBR 2, USA 3, GRE 4, TUR 5, CRO 6, RAS 7, CZE 8, IRL 9, BRA 10.
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